Imparting sex- education in schools

Ashutosh Khanna
Imparting sex-education in the schools of India has remained a debatable issue. While many believe that it should be taken up in the schools, others feel that being a delicate subject, parents should deal with their children in this regard. The children of the 21st century is more aware than what their parents were at the same age courtesy the mass media. The onslaught of the foreign television channels has further led the youngsters to adopt liberal views. The parents have felt the negative impact of the foreign media, propagating among the children. Surveys indicate that on an average every urban student watches television for two hours daily. The overdose of vulgarity and crudity projected in the Indian cinema and the video albums could make the foreigners blush with the shame.
Imparting sex education to the younger generation was felt because of the alarming increase of the HIV carriers in India. The major cause for the spread of this dreaded disease to a healthy person is through the physical relationship with an AIDS victim. Having once contracted this disease, science cannot provide remedy to the victim, because no cure has been made so far. The HIV virus causing AIDS gradually wreaks havoc on the body immune system. The patient suffers from severe weight loss, weakness, diarrohea, pneumonia and a host of other diseases. The disease has several prejudices attached to it, hence the patients are generally not cared by the family and lack of guidance by the parents and society at large, lead to death of such victims. To save the life of such gullible youngsters from contacting the dreaded disease, the parents should need to educate their children. They should be explained the importance of upholding moral values and applying one’s discretion in choosing partners.
Another reason cited for imparting sex-education in school is the spurt in incidents of physical assaults on the minors. According to the WHO study, one in every ten children is sexually abused. Such incidents take place because parents shirk their responsibilities of educating their children against such abuse by the elders. It has also been noticed that most of the time the persons found guilty of assault are known to the victims. Children being naïve, fall victim to the advances of the elders. They are forced to live with a trauma all their lives and are unable to recover from it. So, when the child is a minor, parents should educate him to avoid talking to the strangers and not to be lured by sweets and chocolates. At home they should be asked to maintain a reserved behavior. Simple etiquette of developing one’s behavior, mannerisms and how to sit and hold oneself in the company of elders, should be inculcated in the child at an early age. Children should never be let off guard by their parents.
The pre-teens and the period of adolescence is the time when children experience changes, mental and physical. They begin to see the world in a much mature way. Parents at this stage, treat them as children, while they want to assert their age. The generation gap between their children and their parents widens at this stage of their interaction. There is an undercurrent of hesitancy among the parents in discussing the problems faced by their teenaged children. The children being inquisitive turn to their friends. They gain access to the misinformation through cheap pornographic literature or ideas, which instill them with perverse ideas.
Parents, in India are known to hide their affection towards each other, in front of their children. They resort displaying lack of emotions which is the tradition of a British when it comes to display of love for their spouse in their presence of their children. The children grow up to believe that love is a taboo and it is perverse to display one’s affection in public. Hence, display of proximity by a boy or a girl shaking hands, walking hand in hand or even talking becomes an object of attention or ridicule. This makes the children desirous of developing friendship with the opposite sex, as it would mean being defiant to the norms laid down by the society. Parents should understand the psyche of their children. Subjects, which are passed off as taboo by them, would be pursued by their children in the meaning of love. The love they display for their children, by giving gifts, sharing and caring for them, can be shown for each other too by behaving like perfectly normal friends. Such a way of conduct of the parents towards each other would instill in them the feeling of that love not only means sharing and caring for each other, it also means accepting the responsibility of the other.
During the time of adolescence, parents should befriend their children to help them cope up with the changes they undergo during this period. A secure family atmosphere, during their growing years, would not make them vulnerable to immoral acts. Parents should talk to their children more often to give them the feeling of security in the family. This would make the children open up their problems and help the parents to root out the cause. Interaction with the friends of their children also would give an idea about their background and the minds of the youngster lot. The parents should take in the children as confidants and warn them against developing friendship with immoral friends. They should also narrate their misadventures, indulged in while young, because of improper guidance. They should be told about the repercussions of such misadventures, in later life, to help them face their life properly.
Children should also be told about that love life of a person should begin after student life, as education would give them awareness and maturity to handle responsibilities. They must be made to understand that every stage in life comes at a certain age and stays for a period. Infancy preceded school life, which gave way to college life and later the pursuit of an occupation. No stage in life repeats itself and gives way to the next stage. Rather than turning their backs to the responsibilities, if parents inculcate the true essence of love in their children, there would be a reduction in several crimes. Parents should accept their, responsibilities, which would make the job of the school authorities to impart sex-education in schools, less cumbersome.
School being the second home, should also feel responsibility towards him. Though the initial seeds of learning are sown at home, school life remains an integral part of every child’s development. If parents rise up to their responsibilities, the mission of the school in propagating sex-education among the students could be achieved. Parents might find it difficult to come to terms with the growth of their children. But in the schools, they would be collectively educated with the help of special teachers, psychologists or medical consultants. Parents may sometimes, find it impossible to resolve their children’s riddles these could be looked after by an expert. Sex education in schools would dispel many of the, myths prevalent among children. This would also discourage them from gaining access to filthy magazines. Many of the misconceptions can only be rooted out from the society if sex education in school schools is taken up for the benefit of the students and the community at large.
The best way to tackle the problem is to introduce a subject called ‘Health education’ rather than ‘Sex Education’. This is so because the Indian mindset would always think of something fishy in the subject the subject would be immense help, to the, children and would fulfill their heeds of classified information regarding their physical changes. It would in turn be of immense help to our country as we would be able to save our image from being, vanished.
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