The Indian mainstream media have not taken kindly to the ban on sex education in schools by the government of Maharashtra. They blame the politicians of pandering to obscurantists and ultra-conservatives and call it a struggle between modernity and regression. They believe that sex education will only add to children’s knowledge and remove sexual repression and perverted notions of sex. They claim that sexual repression leads to sexual crimes and a lack of sex education will lead children to access information through the wrong sources.
Let us see for ourselves what the forces of modernity have achieved for their societies. UK leads the pack of countries which have a high rate of teenage pregnancies. In 2005 there were 39,683 conceptions by girls between 15 to 17 years of age. That translates to about 40 girls per thousand. The conception rate for those between 13 and 17 years was around 8 per thousand. If this was the conception rate we shudder to think about what the abortion rate might have been? In a survey carried by the United States Department of Justice in Dec 2000 to study the sexual victimization of college women, it was found that for every 1000 women there may well be 35 incidents of attempted and completed rape in a given academic year. The statistics for child abuse, paedophiling, incest, molestation and domestic violence in those countries who claim to be bastions of freedom and openness are equally depressing.
This miserable state of affairs is in those countries where both sex and sex education are not considered anti-ethical; where consensual sex is not stigmatized and all avenues to vent repressed sexual desires are legal and easily available.
It surprises us no end to understand why the mainstream media missed these facts and indulged in spreading misinformation assuming a gullible public.
It is moral and not sex education that is the need of the hour. We appeal to give innocence a chance.
Arshad Shaikh
Sharjah, UAE