Sex education, for whom?

Trust our politicians and administrators to mess up things. The latest row is over whether Indian schools should have sex education or not. If so, from what grade. This is a needlessly controversy, badly handled. Children, who are sought to be protected from this three-letter word are, ironically, hearing and reading a lot about it! A major PR disaster by our educationists, that was further complicated by our politicians.

First the Madhya Pradesh state government banned sex education, then Maharashtra government followed suit. In Karnataka, a minister said there was no need for it, since children don't get AIDS! Coincidentally, a few days later, a Std X girl died of AIDS in Delhi's AIIMS.

Our country has a glorious history and culture of sex. Kama Sutra, the ancient Indian text on human sexual behaviour composed by Vatsyayana and Khajuraho temple in Madhya Pradesh famous for its erotic sculpture, are just two examples. Add to these today's liberal lifestyle.

It would surely be not an exaggeration to say that there is at least something remotely sexual in lot of the body language and the non-verbal communication that we get to see and hear around us.

Well, that's in the cities. But, in the villages and smaller towns, it's more conservative. Yet only the word 'sex' is a taboo, not the act. It's all there but behind the curtains and bushes. In the cities, though, it's out there, to various extents, in the open: be it in the parks or in the malls. That's all the difference. And, the present controversy is a reflection of this conflict, not our engagement with sex or sexuality.

For a student, what matters is the knowledge that is imparted, not the name of the course. Everything that is supposed to be taught under "sex education" can easily be taught under "health education". After all, we aren't teaching students when to have it or how to have it. It's more about the anatomical and biological aspects, and not the emotional or psychological aspects.

So, knowing well our collective -- not individual -- discomfort with the word "sex", it would have been more prudent to have quietly enhanced the current health education syllabus in schools. There was no need to separate sex from the general health education syllabus, and introduce it as sex education.

At the end of it all, our students would have got to know all they should have actually known, without the raised eyebrows and the discordant notes. Our objective is to educate the children, is it not, not fight over the name of the course.

PS: Going by the extent of taboos and misconceptions among adults, I think, it's the adults who really need a sex education, that too in some good detail. And, for children, health education, with sex and sexuality discreetly included in it.