The ABCs of Sex Education- Attitudes, Benefits, and Challenges| Heer Shah

Suggested Citation: Shah, H. (2021, July 11). The ABCs of Sex Education- Attitudes, Benefits, and Challenges. Queer Academia. URL.

According to population projections, the youth population of the country (15-24 years) is set to increase to 25.1 crores in 2021 (National Commission On Population, 2020). Adolescence and young adulthood is a time for change, where individuals begin to develop romantic and sexual relationships, explore their identity and learn about themselves. However, in order to undergo these experiences in a safe and positive manner, adolescents require a comprehensive understanding of what they are dealing with. At this point, sex education becomes extremely important.

Planned Parenthood (n.d.) defines sex education as “teaching and learning about a broad variety of topics related to sex and sexuality, exploring values and beliefs about those topics and gaining the skills that are needed to navigate relationships and manage one’s own sexual health”. A comprehensive sexual education has been linked with holistic development of youth including biological and psychological benefits (Fernandes and Junnarkar, 2019).

Sex education has a rocky history in India. Though the central government has attempted in the past to make sex education a part of national curriculum, through the Adolescent Education Programme (AEP), in 2005, objections arose from political figures, as well as activists and philosophers, on the grounds that sex education goes against Indian values, and corrupts the mind of the youth with western ideologies. By 2007, the AEP was banned from multiple states including Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, with the inclusion of yoga instead of sex education in a few of the states’ curricula (Sawhney, n.d.). Though it is now slowly becoming a part of curriculum, the taboo on the word ‘sex’ and all that it implies has made it difficult for comprehensive sex education to make a lasting hold in India.

Political views on sex education are only one aspect of the story. Multiple surveys have looked into the beliefs that teachers in India have towards sex education and it's inclusion in the curriculum. For instance, a study by Bhasin and Aggarwal (1999) collected the views of senior-secondary teachers in Delhi towards sex education. They found that 73.3% of 476 teachers were in favour of imparting sex education, while 21.4% were against it. Two leading reasons for not imparting sex education were that it was against Indian values, and that it leads to promiscuity. In terms of content of sex education, reproductive anatomy, menstruation, family planning and contraceptive use and STD and HIV awareness were considered most important. However, integral components such as masturbation, premarital sex, teenage pregnancy, homosexuality and sex related crimes were thought to be unimportant. In 2017, Kumar and Sasikala surveyed the views of teachers in Tamil Nadu on the content of sex education, and found that while teachers were in favour of imparting information about reproductive and sexual health, including STDs and AIDS, they believed that information about contraceptives, pregnancy and sexual orientations was unimportant for higher secondary students. In another study, Toor (2016) found that while teachers are in favour of sex education, they feel the need to be properly trained to impart it.

With educational institutions lacking the curriculum and training to provide sex education, adolescents should be receiving this vital knowledge from other older, important figures in their lives, namely their parents. However, research (Mahajan and Sharma, 2005; O’Sullivan et al., 2018)  shows that most Indian parents are either uncomfortable with the ‘birds and bees’ conversation or even if they are comfortable, the conversations are not comprehensive in nature. O’Sullivan et al. (2018) conducted an online survey with working Indian adults from a middle-class background and found more support for school-based sex education, compared to parent-based. The breadth of information to be imparted was found to be narrow, with topics such as homosexuality, sexual coercion, sexual pleasure and sexual behavior being restricted. In terms of parent-imparted sex education, similar trends were seen in terms of content, and parents were seen as encouraging about discussing sex-related themes (O’Sullivan et al., 2018). However, this study focused on middle class, urban centered individuals. Mahajan and Sharma (2005) found differences in Jammu, between urban and rural mothers’ opinions about teaching reproductive and sexual health to their adolescent daughters, with 100% of the rural mothers stating that they feel uncomfortable in discussing these matters with their daughters.

Perhaps the most important stakeholder in this conversation are the adolescents receiving sex education. When surveyed about their knowledge of STDs and AIDS, it was found that the majority of urban, adolescent school girls in Delhi were unaware of symptoms and consequences of different types of STIs, such as syphilis and herpes. A third of the sample held incorrect views about transmission and symptoms of AIDS, including the belief that it is curable. Just as importantly, 53% of the respondents had never received classes about safe sex or sexual diseases, and 87% of them agreed that there should be classes related to these topics in school, as for a majority of them, this information is gathered through the internet, books/magazines, friends and media (McManus and Dhar, 2008). Research finds a chasm between the proportion of unmarried women that believe sex education to be important and want it and the proportion that actually receive it (80.9% versus 48.5%) (Tripathi and Sekher, 2013).

Despite the many barriers to it, sex education is an extremely important aspect of social, physical and emotional development. Providing comprehensive information to youth has shown to have more pros than cons. For instance, in a review of the effectiveness of sex education, Ross et al. (2021) found that certain school-based interventions can reduce risky sexual behavior, increase protective behaviors such as condom use, delay sex initiation and reduce the number of sexual partners, which is particularly helpful in reducing transmission of STIs and HIV/AIDS. These behaviours are linked to HIV/AIDS and STI incidence and prevalence, as well as unwanted pregnancies, in the long run, and therefore, may help control risky sexual behavior (Ross et al., 2021). Beyond physical benefits, providing sex education has multiple psycho-social benefits, including increasing women’s self-efficacy in relation to safe sex practices (BA et al., 2008), reducing physical dating violence among boys and increasing condom use (Wolfe et al., 2009) and leading to more positive communication about sex with parents, positive attitudes about sexual rights in a relationship, and improved self-efficacy to assert oneself in risky sexual situations, for both male and female students (Constantine et al., 2015). In a country like India, where 6% of adults suffer from sexually transmitted infections (Patel and Mazumdar, 2019), a total of 23.49 lakh individuals live with AIDS  (National AIDS Control Organization, 2020) and where there are 88 new rape cases every day (“India Sees 88 Rape…” | India News - Times of India, n.d.), such outcomes of sex education can change India’s social and health scenario.

No curriculum can be considered complete without sex education, and sex education cannot be considered complete without portions dedicated to non-heterosexual relations, gender and identity. Research in the past (Bhasin and Aggarwal, 1999;  Kumar and Sasikala, 2017; O’Sullivan et al., 2018)  has  shown that Indians object to  the content of sex education that relates to different sexual orientations, but the benefits of  an LGBTQ inclusive education cannot be ignored. Proulx et al. (2019) introduced  an LGBTQ inclusive sex education in 11 states in the U.S. They found that with every 10% rise in the proportion of schools providing inclusive education, there was a significant reduction in depressive symptoms among bisexual students, reduction in bullying experienced by gay and lesbian youth, and overall protection from suicidal thoughts and planning, and depressive symptoms. A review by Gegenfurtner and Gebhardt (2017) conclude that there are strong genetic links in sexual orientation, and as such providing LGBTQ inclusive sex education does not lead to more practice of homosexuality (a concern for many), and  that inclusive education reduces transphobic and homophobic bullying experienced by sexual minorities. In a qualitative interview with trans youth in America, researchers found the participants to be dissatisfied with the inadequate and often stigmatizing information about sexual orientations, that led to delays in understanding gender and identity, feeling unprepared and hesitant during sexual encounters, more negative, non-consensual sexual encounters, and internalized shame, further leading to psychological outcomes, such as body dysmorphia. The participants also believed that inclusive sex education would lead to greater normalization and reduced bullying (Hobaica et al., 2019). In another study seeking recommendations on sexual education provided, from trans youth in America, Bradford et al. (2018) found that participants found current education to be cisnormative, lacking in topics related to sexual minorities, as well as topics related to all young people such as dating and emotional aspects of relationships. Participants wanted diversity not only in content, but also in the people delivering the sex education, to be able to communicate with members of their own and other sexual orientations (Bradford et al. 2018).

These findings provide concrete evidence for the need of a comprehensive sex education in the curriculum of Indian schools. This is not just a matter of education, but is the right of every human being. As stated appropriately, in the Declaration of Sexual Rights, a revised version published in 2014, by the World Association for Sexual Health, “Everyone has the right to education and comprehensive sexuality education. Comprehensive sexuality education must be age appropriate, scientifically accurate, culturally competent, and grounded in human rights, gender equality, and a positive approach to sexuality and pleasure.” (World Association for Sexual Health, 2014).

References

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Written by: Heer Shah

Reviewed by: Smriti Gupta, Aashi Singh and Kanav Sahgal

About the Author: Heer is a student of psychology, interested in the relationship between physical and psychological health, and is soon going to be pursuing a postgraduate degree in Health Psychology.