The Indian parliament’s decision to ban sex education has left young Indians with a conundrum: Where do they go to get advice on love, dating and sex?
According to an interesting article in The Guardian, they open the daily supplement of the Times of India, the country’s best-known English-language newspaper and make a beeline for the daily “Ask the Sexpert” column.
Ask Away…
The column features quintessential questions on sex, sexuality, matters of the heart and dating.
The Times of India’s resident sexpert is 85-year-old gynecologist and sex counselor, Dr Mahinder Watsa. The mature doctor accepts and makes it his mission to answer the concerns of India’s youth of today.
It’s fair to say that Dr. Watsa is far from shy in answering the queries and quandaries of India’s young people. His advice is upbeat and candid, and he regularly labels men “old-fashioned” for not wishing to date women or insisting that they are virgins when they marry. The doctor also counsels on learning the art of lovemaking. His buck stops at homosexuality, but any other topic concerning love, dating and sex is open to discussion in his column.
A Sharp Contrast
As the Guardian points out, The Sexpert represents the polar opposite of sugarcoated lovey-dovey Bollywood cinema and the hush hushing of such topics in many layers of Indian society.
Love or loath this newspaper column, there’s no denying that it answers questions that remain shrouded in myth within many Indian schools where sex education is glossed over or downright dismissed. The Sexpert may be a little brash by some standards, but at the other end of the spectrum, the Indian educational system offers students little tuition on human anatomy.
A recent parliamentary ruling rejected the introduction of proper sex education in schools claiming sex education has no place in India’s “social and cultural ethos”. The committee behind the legislation insists that Indian school children should simply be taught that “sex before marriage … is immoral, unethical and unhealthy”.
According to The Guardian, some observers believe that committee members fear sex education will lead to “people having sex on every corner”.
What do you think? We’d love to hear your opinion.
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