Article by – Shishir Tripathi

Intern at Hariyali Foundation
In collaboration with
Educational News.

In this fast evolving world, advancements are there along with crimes increasing at a double speed. In the age when puberty arrives into the life of a youngster, there are various changes happening in the body. There are bodily (physical changes) and a lot of mental changes too. It’s a time for evolving of a kid into a well developed individual with good presence of mind and the sense of what is wrong or what is right.

Particularly talking about India, such topics are never discussed seriously and openly neither in family nor at schools. But still growth of an individual will not wait for the society to have a discussion on it; it will take place at the right time with the right person. Many youngsters just can’t handle that what is going on in their body and eventually curse and start hating their selves. It is considered that it’s not all good to talk about such topics openly. Everyone gets so uncomfortable when one has to talk about it or to give some information regarding the same.

Though, it is such a natural process that happens with everyone, discussions on such topics in India are always considered as a taboo.

According to SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, 93% of adults they surveyed support sexuality education in high school and 84% support it in junior high school. In fact, 88% of the parents of junior high school students and 80% of parents of secondary school students believe that sex education in school makes it easier for them to talk to their adolescents about sex. Also, 92% of adolescents report that they want both to talk to their parents about sex and to have comprehensive in-school sex education.

There was lot of expectations from the new education policy that has been introduced recently. Students and psychologists wanted the New Education policy to get included into the course curriculum in schools all across the Nation. But sad it is that there was no such inclusion of education for the students.

Adolescents are always curious to know about what is sex, what is their sexuality and similar topics about which they are never told. After the arrival of social media and its reach to a large group of young children, there are high chances of a child landing into problems like online bullying, indulging into forced sex, addiction to pornography and masturbation, mental disorders because of an uneducated mind, problems like depression and self regret, etc.

Even after regulations by the government there are still a lot of sites filled with dirty videos of pornography that are eating up the future of a productive individual and ultimately a very big loss to the nation and to the person himself. Many crimes against the teenagers take place daily. And also at the same time, many incidents of rapes by teenagers are heard in news and in newspapers too. In most of the cases the convicts and the victims say about a watching inappropriate content on the internet or being forcefully exposed to such content. In this all process, an individual kills himself or herself. They ruin their own future and time because of lack of awareness and knowledge about sex education.

Now, one can estimate how important it is to involve sex education into the course curriculum. There is need of support both from the side of school and from parents too.

The objectives of sex education are to help children understand the body structures of men and women and acquire the knowledge about birth. Teaching children to establish and accept the role and responsibility of their own gender by acquiring the knowledge of sex. Understanding the differences and similarities between two genders in terms of body and mind will set up a foundation for the future development in their acquaintance with friends and lovers and their interpersonal relationship. Sex education is a kind of holistic education. It teaches an individual about self-acceptance and the attitude and skills of interpersonal relationship.

It also helps an individual to cultivate a sense of responsibility for him and the acts what he or she are doing. Its role is similar to like that of power booster; as it gives more power to the jogger to jog long without any difficulty. Similarly, after the bookish knowledge, when an individual knows about his sexuality, healthy sex, sex at the right age, good and bad touch, hormonal changes, the individuals gets completed in himself / herself and becomes into a productive work personnel with proper balance of mind and the sense of responsibility towards his nation, his economy.

Hence, inclusion of sex education into a person’s life will bring stability, peace of mind and the sense of responsibility and help in the wholesome development of an individual.