The idiom needs to be changed
K.H. PRABHU
R v Williams (1923) 1 KB 340 is a leading case in the Law of Torts. A music teacher fraudulently obtained the consent of his girl student of 16 years of age to have sex with her. It was under the pretence that his act was an operation to improve her voice. If that girl had undergone the process of sex education, the teacher would not have succeeded in raping her.
This is not an isolated case. One can find in the internet a large number of cases of minor girls being sexually exploited. One can find under the head `Law of Tort and Minor Girls' in the internet a large number of cases of exploitation of minor girls. In rural India the instances of innocent schoolgirls being seduced by their unscrupulous teachers are not uncommon.
The moment someone suggests `sex education' there is strong resistance. The very expression is anathema to those holding orthodox views. It is due to a wrong notion about this branch of education. Those who oppose it are under the impression that sex education involves the description of the act of performance, something like teaching Vatsayana's Kamasutra.
The idiom needs to be changed. As `family planning' was replaced by `family welfare' and thus the taboo attached to birth control was removed, `sex education' needs to be replaced by some euphemism such as `healthy married life' or `married life.'
All that is meant by `sex education' as a subject proposed to be taught in schools and colleges is imparting knowledge about the reproductive process. This is part of medical science. Hence a lesson in the high school textbook on general science about human organs and their functions should not offend anyone's moral sensibility.
Court rulings
It is desirable to have a compulsory subject on `family life' at the college level in the first year which may include such topics as venereal diseases and their effect on marital life, need for physical compatibility in married life, psychology of man-woman relation and offences against marriage. There are rulings of High Courts and the Supreme Court on all these topics. An ideal textbook can be made out of those rulings by modifying them as stories.
Besides, students may be enlightened about the importance of maintaining sacredness of marital life by giving instances from history such as the decline of the ancient Greek civilisation because of denial of freedom to women which led to unnatural sex and adultery being the major cause of the decline of the Roman civilisation.
Teaching the students about human organs, their functions and marital happiness is necessary to make girls guard themselves against dangers to their health and honour, to make boys aware of health hazards caused by indiscriminate sex. There is something more to it which is of special significance to India. Many superstitions are prevailing in this country about sex, which have come down from mythological stories. Religious preachers and Keertankars who have `scientific explanations' about begetting children without bodily contact are not a few in number.
There need not be inhibition in talking about sex in the class. Once I had to teach the first chapter of R.K. Narayan's The Mahabharata. When we came to the birth of Satyavati, a girl asked me whether it is possible that a fish into whose mouth a Gandharva's seed spilled could conceive a human being.
Another student wanted to know what exactly the author meant when he said that sage Parashar restored maidenhood to Satyavati after he had an affair with her. I never had any difficulty in explaining all these mythological episodes. Once while dictating an essay to the final year B.A. students on AIDS and HIV, I had told them in detail everything that I knew about this disease.
There were a large number of grown up girls in the class and they had listened to me in rapt attention and there was an atmosphere of seriousness in the class. I could look into the eyes of the students while talking about it because the students had carried my childrens' image (putracchaaya vahaamyaham).
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