In the Seventies, a British film by Martin Cole called Growing Up broke with previous convention to show masturbation and intercourse acted out by real people. The film, an attempt to dispell the shame and guilt associated with sexual behaviour, received positive feedback from teachers and students but proved to be so controversial nationally — the popular tabloid, The Sun, was particularly scathing in its response — that it was banned by the Birmingham City Council. More recently we have witnessed fervent debate over issues such as the dispensing of contraceptives in public places and in schools.  

The point of this preamble is to counter the main contention of the Committee that India is somehow special and unique in this regard. The truth is that societies the world over, have tended to be especially sensitive about the manner, timing and method in which the facts of life are officially conveyed to their children.  

The operative word here is ‘officially’. It has to be admitted that there is something particularly skewed and misplaced about the amount of time, effort and seriousness that is being devoted to the question of whether sex education should be imparted in schools and our relatively passive acquiescence to living in an environment that brims with sexual imagery and provides easy access to all forms and portrayals of sexuality to all age groups. It would seem that we would rather put the health and life skills of our future generations in the hands of anonymous and often prurient commercial interests rather than entrust them to the assumedly sober guardianship of schoolteachers. By any measure this is a strangely duplicitous approach and it is not without its consequences.   

... contd.