School students get all they wanted to know about sex

[Guest guest]

School students get all they wanted to know about sex

The Indian Express 25 November, 2001-New Delhi

PUJA BIRLA NEW DELHI NOVEMBER 24- If the number of questions asked by boisterous

Class IX students at AIDS awareness programme is anything to go by, schools in

the Capital have an uphill task.

With no sex education classes to clear their doubts, students are using AIDS

awareness programmes, conducted by NGOs, as a guide to dispel myths about the

birds and the bees.

Coordinators from the Rai Bahadur gujarmal Modi (RBGM) Foundation say that

school students come up with the most pertinent of questions-a reflection of the

prudish attitudes prevalent in homes and educational institutions. « I have to

deal with questions ranging from how does one use a condom to where is GB Road,

» says a coordinator from RBGM « They have no other source of correct

information. Parents don " t talk about it and in the classroom, such topics are

merely skimmed through. Even though the human reproductive system is there as a

chapter in biology, most teachers will either skip it completely or barely

glance at it. The situation is even more regressive in co-education schools, »

he says. Thus coordinators become the only people who will provide correct

information. « Information from friends is unbelievably skewed and fantastic.

But no one wants to own up that he doesn " t know a particular thing, " remarks

another coordinator who has been involved in programmes conducted in private as

well as government schools.

'There as an intersting difference in attitude that one encounters. Government

school students usually come from traditional middle and lower-middle class

families that keep a tight hold over 'values.' These kids feel that the reasons

for contracting HIV through sexual contact doesn't hold true for them because

they are brought up with traditional mores of celibacy and fidelity. They are

more interested in knowing how to treat and behave with an HIV-infected person,'

says the coordinator. On the other hand, the questions from public school

students are mostly centred around sex and the ways of practising it safely.

They are not very emphatic about celibacy and virginity and invariably most of

the boys ask how they could prevent a girl from getting pregnant.

In all their workshops, a basic orientation is done starting from relationships,

peer pressure, attractions and the need to prove that the students are mature

adults. Gradually the concept of sexual attraction si introduced and from it the

possibility of contracting the deadly virus. There is information on how it

spreads and the tests that show conclusively whether a person is HIV positive or

not. The most important part of the wordshops are the question and answer

sessions, both for the coordinators as well as the students. Though there are

sniggerings and smirks and nudges, the answers are carefully listened to. And

sometimes even the coordinators are stumpted by the queries of their young

audience.

One of the RBGM coordinators remembers having to answer a question as to why a

man could not have baby especially since a Hollywood movie discussed the

possibility with none other than macho man Arnold Schwarzenegger playing the

lead. 'We just had to tell the student that it was the way God decided and the

rest was only make-believe,' said the coordinator.

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Jagdish Harsh ( jharsh@... )

François-Xavier Bagnoud (INDIA) ( www.fxb.org )

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