The high-level Joint Parliamentary Committee on Petitions, chaired by former BJP president Venkaiah Naidu, is still to decide on including sex education in the school syllabus, but the findings of the first-ever youth survey shows that the youth of the country want sex education, and a majority of them want it from their teachers.

Maharashtra is among states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh that have banned sex education from both the CBSE and state syllabus.

“The demand for sex education among youth is ever growing for various reasons such as the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS, early maturation age owing to improved nutritional status, delay in age of marriage and increased exposure among youth with more opportunities for interaction among young boys and girls,” says Usha Ram, one of the co-ordinators of the study.

“Cutting across the states, schools or colleges are the main providers of the knowledge on the matter. The situation in Bihar and Jharkhand is more serious as less than one-tenth of young women and men have ever received any information on family life or sex,” says Sanjay Mohanty, another co-ordinator.

The first-ever survey to study the behavioural pattern of the youth in the country — conducted across six states — has revealed a lack of comprehensive knowledge about HIV/AIDS. The survey was conducted by the Mumbai-based International Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS), in collaboration with the Population Council, New Delhi, at a time when the Centre has begun work on formulating the next National Youth Policy.

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