Sex Education in India: Hindu Nationalists Deny it's Necessary

When people think about religious opposition to sex education, they probably think about conservative evangelical and fundamentalist Christians in America. Even many Europeans have heard about this problem and probably think about America first when it comes to such issues — but America is not alone. India, too, experiences strong religious and traditionalist opposition to sex education.

The attempt to make sex education universal in a country where sex is rarely discussed openly was always going to be tough. The course's euphemistic title—“Adolescent Education Programme” (AEP)—did not fool teachers, many of whom were horrified by a flipchart with illustrations of naked bodies and detailed drawings of genitalia.

Some also expressed anger over the inclusion of information on contraception and sexually transmitted diseases—the main point of the initiative. In India, 44% of reported AIDS cases occur among 15-29 year-olds. The involvement of the United Nations' Children's Fund, which developed the programme with the government, was another hurdle. It gave right-wing religious groups, always quick to make political capital from issues touching on “Indian values”, the chance to dismiss it as a Western import.

Nasratullah Afandi, of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, an Islamic cultural organisation, says teaching sex education is part of an attempt to create a “homogenised culture”. “Anyway, sex is instinctive,” he adds. “It is not necessary to teach children about it.” ...

In Delhi the sex-education programme never reached any schools. Rina Ray, education secretary in the local government, said it would introduce its own course in November. It would emphasise “life skills: like nutrition, decision-making, and communicating with one's parents”. It did include information about sex and AIDS, she added. “But we're the education department, not the health department.”

Source: The Economist

Why are religious conservative so concerned about — or perhaps afraid of — sex and sexuality? I think it has to do with control: when you control people's sexual behavior, sexual expression, and sexuality, you have gone very far in being able to control the person as well. Sex is a form of personal freedom and autonomy — it's something you should be able to take pleasure in by yourself or with another but without the permission of any cultural, social, religious, or political authorities.

By directing sexual expression, interest, and activity into the channels which they choose, religious and political authorities effectively privilege those channels over all others: heterosexuality over homosexuality, monogamous sex over polygamous sex, married sex over unmarried sex, plain vanilla sex over B&D, etc. This, in turn, privileges certain types of relationships, traditions, and institutions over others. Control of sexuality is thus an integral and fundamental way in which traditional authorities and institutions maintain control over society generally

It is, however, a form of control which most don't even recognize as control, and thus it's far more difficult to fight against it. You can't effectively throw off shackles that you don't even realize you're wearing or that you've become so accustomed to that you don't want to lose. The fight for sexual liberty, sexual autonomy, and even just basic sexual education are thus critical to the liberation of people in society generally — without them, people will forever be under the control of religious authoritarians.