Dial 'S' for sex advice

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Dial 'S' for sex advice

By: Alisha Coelho Date: 2010-10-18 Place: Mumbai

Sparsh, an initiative by a family planning NGO, will enable first-timers and

curious teens alike to get informed sex education and advice over their

cellphones

FIRST-TIMERS with doubts about contraception, STDs, erectile dysfunction and the

like will now have to look no further than the ubiquitous cellphone to get some

sex education and advice.

The initiative, called Sparsh, spearheaded by NGO Family Planning Association of

India (FPAI), will enable curious teens and young adults alike to get sex advice

via SMS or through recordings that they can listen in to, starting tomorrow.

The NGO's secretary general Vishwanath Koliwad said the initiative seeks to

address young people's use of pornography or uninformed peer advice to get

information on sex-related topics.

" We have seen that, because of the prevailing situation regarding sex education,

teenagers and adults turn to informal means like pornography or their peers to

educate themselves about sexuality.

This may be a problem, however, since the information is not always accurate.

The idea here is that the platform is personal and mobile penetration is far

higher than that of any other medium at the moment, " he said.

" We are looking largely at targeting youth who've either had sex for the first

time recently or are planning to soon, and even those who have unanswered

questions about their body.

The target group therefore ranges from 13-30 years, " said Tushar Deshmukh,

director, resource mobilisation, at FPAI.

The organisation is hoping that youth looking for information on subjects like

masturbation, menstruation and AIDS (see box) will call them rather than going

in for uninformed advice.

The service is being launched only in three languages English, Hindi and Marathi

initially but FPAI is tying up with an education and technology services

provider to expand it to 12 Indian and six international languages.

Koliwad said that officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have

also expressed interest in the programme and have asked for a demonstration

after its launch tomorrow.

" They were quite interested in our product as it is backed by research conducted

over two years.

We are giving them a demonstration after the launch and they have also consented

to be part of the event that day, " he said the service will be free for 15 days

from the launch, following which users will have to pay a monthly fee to avail

of it.

Sparsh helpline number: (022) 4243 3531

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