After giving a presentation on ‘understanding one’s own body’ and the threat of sexually transmitted diseases to girls from ‘senior’ classes, Dr Mala Arora quietly switches on the lights and hands out pieces of paper, asking them to write their queries.

The queries, she announces reassuringly, could be anonymous. With over ten years of experience in conducting such sessions for young adolescents in schools, Arora, who has been a gynaecologist for over 25 years, was expecting shy and uncomfortable queries after a 30-minute presentation that often led to precarious discussions on sex. “No one is judging you here,” her colleague Dr Pratima Mittal adds.

As if waiting for a cue, the warm and sleepy Saturday morning in the resource room at the KR Mangalam World School suddenly wakes up with a jolt when she reads the first question.

“What kind of a boyfriend should I have,” she reads out aloud to a group of about 50 girls of classes IX to XII, waiting for her to answer. Murmuring and giggling, but still waiting.

Arora puts the question back to the group. “You tell me,” she says. “Kind,” says one. “Loyal and honest,” says the other. “Passionate,” says a third, before the room crackles with laughter. “But should I allow him to touch me,” says a girl from class X. The giggles turn to murmurs. “Depends on how you feel about it. If you are uncomfortable, you should let him know, and if he is a true friend, he would understand,” she says. She addresses the next question on breast cancer and then AIDS.

... contd.