Sex Education

Indian wisdom holds Kama, love or desire of sensual enjoyment as one of the four ends of life. These are religion(dharma), wealth(artha), sex(kama) and liberation(moksha). India has dealt with the matter of sex most objectively and scientifically which is why there are temples of Khajuraho, Konark and Puri and a treatise like Vatsyayana’s Kamasutra. And yet sex has become a taboo now. Many parents, teachers and others find it embarrassing to talk of sex before children and students. In these days of much scientific, technological and industrial development, there still persist many superstitions, myths and much ignorance about sex in India. Because of this lack of scientific understanding of the procreation and it’s physical aspects, the adolescents and children suffer the most. Consequently, they are not able to develop healthy attitude towards sex and suffer from many sex related misconceptions. In the absence of right knowledge and healthy attitude towards sex they often become victims of sex abuses and suffer the ills mutely. In these days Web series, Western movies and liberal morals, the Indian children feel sexually excited and stimulated but cannot properly cope with the situation for want of sex education and start suffering from various sex related complexes. As such they commit many mistakes which often put them on wrong tracks and ruin their life.

The rapid increase in the cases of AIDS, HIV positive etc. are the direct result of this total ignorance about sex and the reproductive process. There is an urgent need to remove misconceptions about it by introduction of sex education on a wide scale in schools and colleges on scientific lines. It has become all the more important as coeducation is becoming more popular arid there is free and liberal coming together of the opposite sexes at schools, colleges, universities and social levels. Children are scolded or discouraged when found discussing sex. Then they try to obtain knowledge about sex from doubtful, ill informed sources, friends and books. This gives rise to obscene books, pornographic literature, blue films and such other trash material. Even many married couple suffer from sex guilt and think love making as something asocial, obscene and undesirable to be indulged into the darkness of their bedrooms at night. This unscientific and unhealthy attitude towards sex has been largely responsible for such evils as gender bias, sex abuse, prostitution, rape, homosexuality, unnatural sex and undesired pregnancy.

If the children are taught sex scientifically, naturally and as one of the school subjects many of the evils and complexes related with sex can be removed. Many of the diseases like syphilis, AIDS, STD etc can be prevented if sex education is imparted to the children by their teachers and parents with the help of models, charts, illustrations, slides etc. When properly informed, they would be better armed to guard against sex abuses and exploitations. Many young men and women become victims of evil sensual designs because of poor or unscientific sex knowledge. Consequently, there are many cases of unwanted mothers, children and pregnancies. No doubt, it is a very sensitive subject and needs to be handled very carefully and cautiously or else it may create another type of serious problems as is happening in many western countries where free love and sex prevails.

The content, quality and method of sex education should be proven standard. The men and women entrusted with giving sex education to children should be really well qualified mentally, psychologically and educationally. There cannot be any ad hoc or half baked things. Sex education should be suggestive, imaginative but of practical value based on scientific studies and attitudes. Such an explosive subject cannot be taken lightly nor can it be ignored. Children cannot be any longer brought up in ignorance of facts which so intimately concern them. Their questions, curiosity and doubts about the subject should be fully answered and removed. They should be encouraged to know more about it like any other subject. In the formative years of childhood and adolescence, it is very essential that they are well informed about sex. A lack of sex education or faulty education at this stage may result in various forms of sexual deviations and abnormalities later in adulthood.