Sex education is a controversial subject in India, sometimes viewed as a taboo topic; across the country and within the community, opinions on how or whether to deliver it are divided. The states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have banned or refused to implement sex education in schools. The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh said sex education had "no place in Indian culture" and plans to introduce yoga in schools instead. On the global level, India has notably fallen behind numerous countries, including underdeveloped and significantly smaller countries such as Sudan and the Congo Republic, where sex education is first taught at the primary level.
Current state of sexual health
Sex and pregnancy The sex ratio in India is skewed towards males, with 943 girls born per 1000 males in 2011. This is propagated by several factors, including lower caloric intake by mothers, female infanticide, and cultural preference for boys. However, the most plausible explanation for fewer female than male births is prenatal sex determination, followed by induced abortion of female fetuses. This suggests that potential mothers are socialised to believe that having a female child is detrimental to their family, either economically or socially.
In more developed parts of India, such as tier 1 and tier 2 cities, an increasing number of young men and women are delaying marriage to pursue their careers, a result of rising education levels. However, In rural areas and urban slums, girls are often married early, entering married life unequipped with any knowledge of sex. This manifests itself on a larger scale. According to UNICEF, about 240 million women alive in India today were married before the age of 18 even though the average age of women at first marriage has increased to 20.6.
While pre-marital sex is severely stigmatised in India, child marriages and teen pregnancies remain a growing concern for the country, with 11.5% being married between the ages of 15 and 19, and 45% being married before the age of 24. Girls entering into such early marriages are encouraged by family and community to reproduce directly after marriage; they tend to have low awareness of, and lack access to, contraception. Approximately one-third of these girls have a child before the age of 19. Medical termination of pregnancy is available to few and the attitude of the providers towards such women is generally unsympathetic. As a result, girls and young women with unwanted pregnancies may attempt unsafe abortions or abandon the child. Such stigmatised women may also commit suicide.
There is a low rate of contraception use within or outside of marriage. Based on a National Family Health Survey conducted in 1992–1993, 7.1% of married women (aged 15–19) use contraception, compared to 21% among women (aged 20–24).Jejeebhoy, Shireen J. "Adolescent sexual and reproductive behavior: A review of the evidence from India". Social Science & Medicine 46, no. 10 (1998): 1275–1290. Additionally, adolescents lack access to contraceptive methods like oral contraceptives and diaphragms. Lack of contraception use is coupled with lack of availability of safe abortions. While five million abortions occur annually in India, only 10% of those are performed within the structures of a high-quality hospital.
HIV/AIDS and other STIs Approximately 2.1 million people are said to be infected with HIV among India's estimated population of 1.3 billion. Though a huge burden to the lower-middle-income country, its prevalence has seen a decline from the epidemic's peak in the early 2000s and now ranks third among countries with the largest HIV epidemic. Among those infected, individuals belonging to stigmatized groups such as sex workers, men who have sex with other men, transexuals, truck drivers and drug users are seemingly most vulnerable. These groups are also reported to be vulnerable to four other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that are prevalent in India as well. Although their prevalence varies dramatically across the country, the following STIs have been a growing concern: syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis.
Premarital sex has risen in India, and a large proportion of it is unprotected. A high incidence of risky sexual behaviors is found among India's youth in addition to poor awareness of sexually transmitted infections. These findings can explain why 31% of India's HIV cases are among individuals between the ages of 15 – 29 years old. Growing concerns over high incidence of STIs among the youth only further emphasizes the current lack of and need for comprehensive sex education in India.
Types of sex education
For adolescents There are about 190 million adolescents in Indiaa demographic in which over 30% of people are illiterate. Disparities in gender at this age can often be explained by relatively poor access to reproductive health care and the fact that girls often have less access to food, which adversely affects their growth patterns. Additionally, adolescent girls often work long hours in the home with no opportunity for employment.
Adolescents, both males and females, tend to not be informed about sexuality. This is often caused by lack of education in general (but sex education in particular) and conservative attitudes towards sex. Those few schools who do provide sex education to its students, establish different curriculums for girls and boys and are taught separately. However, this curriculum is far from being comprehensive and of adequate quality. The use of the words "sex and sexuality" are often omitted in these teachings and topics are often restricted to menstrual hygiene and equivalent. The perpetuation of stigma surrounding sex and sex education in India is only further exacerbated by these schools, which often encourage girls to keep quiet about the topics in their sex education curriculum from their male peers and instructors because it is 'inappropriate'. The level of awareness and knowledge regarding sex education among adolescents is also higher among those living in urban areas than among those living in rural areas. This is caused by higher-quality education and more exposure to globalized points of view.Abraham, Leena, and K. Anil Kumar. "Sexual experiences and their correlates among college students in Mumbai City, India." International Family Planning Perspectives (1999): 139–152.
A lack of a comprehensive sex education may also contribute to the high incidence of sexual violence in India. While values vary across states, lifetime prevalence for women of physical or sexual violence of 89% in some regions (that is, in those regions, 89 per cent of women have experienced this violence at some point in their lives). Citing:
This finding reflects the contributions of the resistance in Indian society to openly discuss and educate individuals on topics such as consent, sexual violence, and healthy sexuality.
Role of Technology The lack of access to quality sex education in India has left the youth responsible for educating themselves on the topic. With its continuous advancements and accessibility, technology has become an integral part in filling in those gaps and educating India's youth about sex. Studies show adolescents are gathering a majority of this information from social media, pornography, television and streaming platforms. However, its accessibility and wide range of information has also raised concerns. Specifically, their lack of knowledge of the topic makes India's youth vulnerable to misinformation about sex. Another concern that has risen is the role that pornography has in promoting misogynistic behavior and sexual violence.
Efficacy Parents are often reluctant to teach accurate and relevant information about sex to adolescents because of the stigma associated with the topic. More than taboo, mothers especially feel like talking about sex is embarrassing and dirty.
This same attitude is held by teachers. First, when the National Council of Educational Research and Training initiated sex education, they structured it as a part of existing studies, rather than a separate subject. However, teachers tried to avoid teaching the topic. Second, a school in Gujarat implemented a system where students could anonymously drop letters into a box for trained counselors to read. The nature of these questions tended to split by sex. Girls' questions tended to focus on menstruation, physical appearance, and 'normal' sexual behavior while boys' questions tended to focus on nocturnal emission, masturbation and body size. Though these programmes exist, they are unable to reach girls who are not in school, a significant section of the population. Other than the specific initiatives outlined above, there are very few services that cater specifically to adolescents. Though NGOs and local schools are trying to push for more, teachers rarely cover issues like sexuality and reproductive health. Additionally, NGO reach is limited even though they can reach out-of-school adolescents.
In a 2005 study in Chandigarh, a reproductive health education package was prepared after consulting parents and teachers to address cultural sensitivities. The package had a guidebook for the instructor and a book for the students for self-study. The students (aged 15–20; mean age 16.47 years) were grouped and subjected to two types of education methods. In the first method, education was directly provided to them in a classroom setting by an instructor. In the second method, some students were selected and educated by instructors. Following that, they were encouraged to engage in peer education. A third group was reserved as a control. The first group showed the most improvement in their knowledge after the nine-month programme. The peer-education group showed knowledge levels similar to the first group after a three-month course. The increase in knowledge level was considered significant after comparison to the control group.
Surveys have shown that adolescents learn a significant amount about sex from the media, including books and movies. Research has found that such exposure is not, however, equivalent to accuracy. Even though teens interacted with media that talked about sex, they did not glean accurate information regarding the reproductive process. Additionally, exposure to media did not teach adolescents about healthy emotional growth or responsible adulthood.
However, despite continuing opposition, large scale interventions have seen success and demonstrate the possibilities of implementing sex education programs in India. In Jharkhand, India, a sex education program called Udaan has seen success not only as a curriculum, but at responding to resistance. Established in 2006 by the government of Jharkhand, this program has not only been sustained over time, but has been extended to all government secondary and upper primary schools The curriculum itself is designed to address adolescents' sexual and reproductive health needs and was a government response to the recognition and growing concerns over HIV and lack of school-based sex education. Its recognition by national and state governments as a model program is not only credited to the curriculum itself, but the program's success at responding to resistance and creating a supportive environment. Key features that have allowed such results is the programs's transparency and efforts in involving the community. In addition, the government-led implementation of the program, which involves careful monitoring and evaluation, has undeniably contributed to the program's sustainability and expansion over the years. Various agencies that have evaluated the impacts of the program record positive effects on the students' knowledge regarding topics covered in the curriculum and improvements in critical skills such as communication and decision-making.
Opposition