As Rajesh Tiwari, principal of government-run Excellence School in Bhopal, puts it: ‘‘AIDS is a different issue and sex is different. Why do you need these diagrams of nude boys and girls? It is against our culture to talk sex and show such diagrams to our students. Fifty years ago, teachers did not need to speak of sex to students. So why the necessity today? Why should a 15-year-old be openly spoken to about sex? Just tell them that according to Indian tradition, every man has to lead the life of a ‘bramhachari (bachelor)’ till the age of 25. Tell them AIDS can be contacted through a used syringe or blood transfusion.’’[link]
Unfortunately, I don’t have the time for a longer rant comment, but I can’t believe this dolt is actually advocating not telling kids that unprotected sex can lead to A.I.D.S! What kind of cave is this man living in?
Sigh! Perhaps, he should read this.
Filed under: Rants, Views On News
Heh! Actually my 8th Std NCERT Biology book used to have diagrams of nude men & women…about 15 years ago. And I think they replaced the diagrams in CBSE curriculum with something more “refined” about 8 years ago. As a country we seem to be progressively becoming more regressive, more insular…
[...] if that’s too simple, this is what Confused shares. If thats how our educationists think, where are we [...]
Maybe they could get Sooraj Barjatiya to make them a sex ed film. You know the ones where the girl is a bashful cow and the guy is Ram part 2, sex is a dirty three lettered word and babies are a gift from God above. Just throw in about 17 and a half songs and that should do the trick. No sex talk, and point still gets through.
And really, this did deserve a longer rant.
Excellent! I dnot even ask which cave this specimen from? I truly pity his children and the whole lot of young citizens in his school.
if any reader of R’s blog is from Bhopal, please do, out of curiousity, survey the neighborhood of the school headed by this “underdeveloped brain” and let us know if it is surrounded by theatres that relentlessly play Mallika Sherawat or hot dixie movies
…
my ex-lover lamented over his 4-yr old little baby’s query “why is sushrut’s *sussu is different from my sussu”. Rajesh Tiwari should understand n digest the fact that he is breathing in the world of ANY
*Advanced New Youngsters*. this is the age where kids are growing older younger, pre-adolescents are behaving like adolescents and adolescents like adults. Moms are worried about their “big boys and big gals”, their children losing innocence like rapid fire bomboozling* the forests and appreciate Surf Excel ad’s innocent bunch of kids … acquisition and practice of knowledge are almost quuck collapse of building blocks.
Tiwari has to read today’s TOI, which screams the no.of cases in which children received court orders or warnings for sex offences has jumped by 20% from 1664 in 2002-3 to 1988 lasy yr.Little hands stroke mobile phones more often than they are supposed to and older bro or sis are in MMS, little rabbit gets curious too!
regressive preacher…every man has to lead the life of a ‘bramhachari (bachelor)’ till the age of 25….my dear bro Lord Hanuman would not agree to this cobwebish phil anymore.btw, a 25yr old man can stay a bachelor, but is he virgin ?a critical question…
this specimen needs to be educated first and be exposed to some educative movies, sage Vatsyayana’s Kamasutra (animated version) should be sent across to him.
I am surprised why didnt he raise a lambast against Popular culture, i.e.Indian movies, which have, long ago, shed that “flower to flower kiss” or “bee buzzing over a blossom” or “fiercely *clasped hands around the trunk of the tree in the foreground” depictions and demonstrating lust & love DDS (Direct Dil se)? and why he still has not leapt like a ball of fire over the wild west theories of life we Indians are consuming these days?
More and more children in India are obese.nothing much to play around, so they eat junk food & drink pesticides (Coke * Pepsi)..and watch the idiot box with their parents (passive couch potatoes)
Mr Tiwari eat these figs>
8-11s and 12-24s watch a lot of TV,sometimes sharing each other’s core interests.so while 61% of the 12-24s watch animation, 32% of 8-11s watch movies …..
R
longer comment…where is my prize?:-):-)
Well for all those who have never studied in small towns..,this man is like any average middle aged governement employee who would want to believe in the light of the day, that his own children were a gift by stork. There basic problem is they find sex dirty and a topic that cannot be discussed.
He is a jerk, but then there are too many of them. And let me also tell you one thing, the kind of school he comes from… the kids do not have the kind of exposuer we have in metros. For them these classes will be a topic of fun for loong months to come. more than books they need to be told the seriousness of aids and sex both. These boys and girls will go haaaa over the toipc … not pay attention because of the awe value.. never clarify their doubts and hide it from their parents.
Bhopal, predominantly is a city with loads of goverment employess and people who still belong to the nawab era. There are engineering colleges where girls are not allowed to wear jeans or skirts. there are special allowances for muslim girls to wear salwar kurtas where others have to wear tunics. You have no clue how many years or decades it is behind a mumbai or a delhi.
To a large extent i feel that they slowly need to introduced to the topic and then given these books for it to make any impact on them.. or else we are handing out b/w poor quality porn books which the kids will imporve using good old Reynold’s.
wow ! this statement by itself deserves some kind of an award.
Someone tell this dolt there was no AIDS fifty years back.
Also, perhaps his salary should be the same as fifty years back…
This’s what we call “unsubstantiated hogwash from aspirers of idealism who cower at the heels of pragmatism”. I expect this whole bunch of eggheads to get comfortable with their respective sexuality first, which is beyond reproductive-genital system. Once this is done, they would sail smoothly though the “sex and sensibility in the classroom” or “birds and bees” sessions.
It is clearly stated over there that the book is not meant for little kids’ consumption, but teachers (grown-up eggheads). If they still feel so *squishy about the whole thing, seek help from NGOs in this domain and let them take control of the situation. Ye, ensure that this squishy bunch of teachers sit along with the giggling bunch of rotten kids when the aforementioned classes are in full swing. I feel, visual clips (take from Animal Planet or some other educative channels) would make the textual content fuller. Can we drag in parents?
That gimp (lame walk)*ish concern about pictures showing physical changes in male and female bodies is utter bunkum. Every child (girl or boy) experiences these awkward growths in her/his body, and whispers them to his/her tribe, and then what is so offensive about staring at the same in a book? All those film mags that dad or mom read stealthily are full of buxom and full-fledged uncles and aunts.
Else, initiate the stir, young citizens would yet again be blessed with a generous load of holidays and curious little things would search on the net for “sex education and AIDS”. Knowledge is power. If the logic of “just because we know about something, we’re going to do it” works, then we will have more battles and more math-fireworks. These dolts should realize that they are teaching kids certain facts of what will happen if they chose not to follow specific things…
Sex education is the responsibility of the parents. Education has little correlation with sexually transmitted diseases. Except AIDs, the US leads in HPV, Herpes etc. About 50% of women in the US between ages 15 to 24 have some sort of STD.
@Barb:
Data for USA: http://www.avert.org/stdstatisticusa.htm
Though it does not include all STDs but given that 3 major STDs account for less than 0.5% of the population, 50% would be a bit too much.
Having said that, I agree that Sex-Ed is something that can be better imparted by parents at home rather than teachers in school.
Not so soon.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070302/cm_usatoday/newstudiesandyourhealth
Also,
“And wham, with my very first girlfriend, I caught herpes,” he says. “You feel betrayed and all of a sudden separated from the rest of the world. I thought at the time that the girl who gave it to me and I were the only people in the world who had it.”
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/02/27/std.internet/
The second item is rather interesting.
Mohit,
Yeah, as Nitin puts it-competitive intolerance. And this ia hardly the first case, same thing happened in W.B with NACO.
Neha,
Yeah I know but what to do? Exams… Sigh! no one wishes me luck!
Jyo,
What is actually dangerous is that a lot of people will agree with Tiwari and blame Westernization for what is happening! Or economic reforms, anything except the real cause.
And you will get a prize when you write a short comment.
Cinamon,
I have never been to Bhopal so I can’t really say anything about the city per se. However, more than geographical location, the problem is with attitudes, how much of it depends on location..hmmmm I am not sure though I agree that it definitely plays some part..
Bongo,
The Britishers should have taken him with them… that would have been the best solution for all parties concerned.
Jyo,
Exactly but well, maybe they themselves don’t want to read about it..
Barb,
I will post a longer reply to your comment, for now, I would like to point out that being infected doesn’t mean they actually are diseased.
ooh, like that happened to you. a little late but still, best of luck, and do survive.
Sorry, didn’t know of your exams…best of luck, although i’m sure you don’t believe in luck do you?!
R
May you get “Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia” when you are deep down in the exam paper!
say na, Jyo write shortest, smallest, Mini-Oreo kinda responses.huh!:-(:(
My Best wishes for you are sleeping on the couch now,with a message “dont disturb us”:-|:-|
42 words
R,
Its not about geography or location, its about the era in which they live. You cant even dream about the kind of stuff that goes on in such cities. And you will find such cities sprinkled all across the country not matter what the demographics are like.
I agree with much of what you say, but
> being infected doesn’t mean they actually are diseased.
immediately opens the door to a rejoinder:
sex might cause HIV infection, which does not mean that one has AIDS.
Sex education is necessary in persent India. There should be no doubt about sex between boys and girls. We should forget some root points of our indian culture and come out of them.
It is better idea to resolve the problem.
The policy to impart sex education in schools has been banned / stalled in many states . While there is a need to tackle the cultural degradation stemming out of the fare dished out by the media and the problems stemming from issues like AIDs , will the solution proposed solve this problem ? What do we understand by healthy sex education and what is it that NCERT has come out with needs to be examined ( as also how it will be taught ) . The article below is very insightful in buiding a perspective to study the issue .
Viren
The bogey of sex education
http://www.infochangeindia.org/analysis201.jsp
As the tussle between proponents of sex education in schools and
conservatives who wish to ban it continues, Neha Madhiwalla writes that the
evidence of the benefits of sex education is not very convincing
In recent months, a number of state governments have passed orders banning
sex education in schools. The immediate provocation was a manual for
teachers produced by the NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and
Training), which allegedly features offensive illustrations and classroom
exercises.
Although many commentators have labelled this a reaction by right-wing
conservative governments, this is a bit unfair considering that Kerala was
one of the first states to institute the ban.
Much of the debate has so far centred around the concept of sex education
per se, with neither side seeming to have delved too deep into what this
constitutes.
In view of the high degree of ‘sexualisation’ of public life today, the
argument against sex education in schools would appear somewhat
anachronistic. Everything from HIV/AIDS campaigns to product ads and the
Internet introduces adolescents to sexuality. The specific advantage of
introducing sex education in schools is that one can direct what adolescents
are exposed to and also (importantly) use the moral/social authority of the
school as an institution to reinforce more positive, equitable ideas about
sexuality.
For the large part, parents give schools the freedom to deal with their
children’s education as they see fit. They do not question what or why or
how their children are taught. Therefore, the school’s decision to impart
sex education would face less resistance than any such effort by an external
agency.
Ironically, however, schools are compelled to meet parents’ expectations of
schools as places of propriety and rigid discipline. And sex education
threatens this fine balance. Hence the high-profile tussle for the social
space of schools between proponents of sex education and the conservatives
who wish to ban it.
Whilst I would definitely side with the former, I do have some doubts. For
one, contrary to the general impression that the liberal intellectual has,
the evidence for the benefits of sex education is not very convincing. Other
factors such as class, the presence of supportive adults, exposure to
violence, addiction and other kinds of risks, play a more important role in
determining the health outcomes for adolescents than sex education. Also, it
is not really true that low levels of knowledge about sexual health
automatically lead to adverse health outcomes. Again, other factors play an
important role.
At the same time, it is quite well established that imparting sex education
does not induce adolescents to take more risks. It is also established that
adolescents have a natural curiosity about their bodies, sexuality and
reproduction, and if the school system fails to provide them with the
information, they will seek it from other sources — their peers, the media,
the Internet, etc.
So, are we to conclude that sex education does not harm children but we also
don’t know how much good it does?
This question would have an answer if we knew what ‘good’ means. Ironically,
as far as teenagers are concerned, we know what we do not want happening to
them. We know, for instance, that we do not want them to have unprotected
sex (or sex, period), get pregnant early, be forced to have sex, develop
STDs, etc.
But what is it that we do want? It’s difficult to find half-a-dozen decent
goals that we would like adolescents to achieve as a result of sex
education. Long-term goals such as increased age at marriage and first
pregnancy are much more dependent on structural change than on behaviour
change education. For example, the phenomenon of teenage pregnancy in India
is related not to lack of awareness among adolescents but to the widespread
practice of child marriage.
Secondly, sex education is only peripherally about sex. Any well designed,
adequately researched programme would include discussions on the entire
range of relationships and social situations that surround sexuality. In my
experience of working with adolescent girls on life skills and reproductive
health, I have found that the easiest part is actually the sex part. It is
surprising how quickly adolescents get over the embarrassment and the
excitement of talking about taboo topics. After that, learning anatomy can
be made as much fun and as mundane as plumbing!
The difficult part is the part that deals with emotions, values and social
norms. These force the teacher/trainer to take moral/political stands that
may not be popular with the authorities. For example, a group of social
communications students completed a detailed description of the ovum’s
journey from the ovary to the uterus. During the feedback session, a
16-year-old girl asked: “Is it okay to fall in love with a boy from another
religion?” I would love to find a teacher who knows the right answer to
that! Of course, it’s easy to give the politically correct answer in a
textbook, but actually verbalising it in a school located inside a ghetto
peopled by victims of a riot requires much more courage.
This is where the real problem lies. I don’t think that the question of
whether it is ‘right’ to introduce sex education in schools can be separated
from the question of what it should consist of and who should teach it. Very
often it is quite evident that the training/teaching material has been
designed not with a real situation in mind but an abstract ideal that is
factually and politically correct but completely devoid of context.
This schism between those who design the curriculum and those who actually
teach it is a significant one. The former bases its curriculum on what they
assume adolescents should know; the latter bases its response on what they
assume adolescents are socially allowed to know.
And this generic problem is made particularly acute by the environment in
our schools. The concept of ‘good’ education in India is largely associated
with strict adherence to rules, and there is a huge premium placed on
obedience. It is also important to remember that this obedience is not
limited to students but extends all the way to the top of the education
hierarchy. Independent-minded teachers are not appreciated by school
administrators. For their part, school managements quickly sideline
innovative or critical school administrators.
Thus, one of the biggest hurdles in introducing sex education in schools is
the larger school context in which we expect it to work. To expect that
participatory methods and free discussion would actually be possible in the
average school setup is a fantasy.
Teachers are, not surprisingly, the most vociferous critics of sex
education. Firstly, they feel that teaching sex education trivialises their
work and reduces their prestige as teachers. This would be easier to
understand if we were to imagine the rural (or even urban) context in which
the teacher is very visibly at the mercy of the school authorities or
influential community members. In order to be respected by their students,
particularly adolescents who are much more aware about school politics and
community affairs, they would like to maintain a social distance between
themselves and their students. This is severely compromised by talking about
something as personal as sex. Also, teaching in our country is almost
entirely based on rote learning, in which ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are determined
by the textbook. Sex education in particular is not amenable to this kind of
treatment.
And so medical people are appointed experts on sex education; they readily
oblige by reducing sexuality to the structure and functions of the
reproductive system. Often, pedagogues would also insist that the subject be
dealt with in this manner in order to make it more impersonal and, hence,
less awkward to teach. As a resource person, I am advised to give students
‘good, scientific information’. Out of sheer embarrassment, many hosts
confer an honorary medical degree on me for their own consolation!
Whether this strategy of imparting sex education really works is debatable.
Students are interested in science, particularly about their own body. But
their interest has less to do with medicine and more to do with social life.
Also, we have seen through experience that for adolescents to learn to love
themselves and respect their bodies, it’s important they are successful in
their social lives. I will always remember one girl in our programme who was
completely withdrawn and felt very negatively about her looks and her body.
Her self-image improved dramatically when she became the unofficial class
leader and was given more responsibility and, consequently, more credit in
the school. Everything about her, from the care she took of herself to her
ability to take control of her body changed drastically.
Being aware of the scientific facts alone does not protect adolescents from
abuse. It is social skills, a high level of self-respect, and a supportive
environment that allow adolescents to make healthy and empowering choices.
However, I have found few institutions that have the commitment to see
adolescents through this long journey. Most are content to evaluate marginal
improvements in knowledge levels and leave it at that.
Finally, all those who work in this field are faced with a personal dilemma
about how much is too much. One of the most endearing characteristics about
adolescents is their ability to be adults and children at the same time.
This is also one of the most frustrating problems we have to work with.
Whilst on the one hand it feels right to give adolescents information and
discuss the more negative aspects of life, on the other you have a gnawing
doubt that they are not ready for it yet. I remember having a long
discussion with a bunch of 16-17-year-olds about relationships with men, the
immediate concern being that they were going to venture out of their slum
alone for the first time, to appear for their school-leaving exams. We spoke
about a lot of things — about love, friendship, platonic relationships,
exploitative relationships, etc. And all the time they kept nodding their
heads and affirming my views. So, with a sense of accomplishment I said:
“So, as you can see, it is only in the movies that you meet someone on the
bus for the first time and that person becomes your life partner.” They all
nodded sagely, then one of them added: “But didi we are all hoping that it
will happen that way.” I did not have the heart to dash such a fabulous
hope.
(Neha Madhiwalla is a health researcher and activist. She works with Sahyog
School Without Walls, a nonformal educational programme for adolescent
girls. She is a co-author of Jhula, a comprehensive life-skills curriculum
for girls)
InfoChange News & Features, June 2007
http://www.medicc.org/publications/medicc_review/0406/mr-interview.html
Another good article
MR INTERVIEW
Mariela Castro, MS
Director, National Center for Sex Education
Mariela Castro with Cuban HIV poster:
“How do I show you I love you?”
By Gail A. Reed
Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX) brings together a multitude of professionals for academic courses through master’s level degrees, research, community work, social communication, counseling and sexual therapy. More broadly stated by its Director Mariela Castro, CENESEX’s mission is to contribute to “the development of a culture of sexuality that is full, pleasurable and responsible, as well as to promote the full exercise of sexual rights.” This is a tall order for any society, especially one with a history of machismo and prejudice against all but heterosexual orientation. MEDICC Review spoke with Mariela Castro about the experience of women and HIV infection in Cuba.
MR: Who are the women most at risk today in Cuba for HIV infection and why?
MC: First of course, women who have both vaginal and anal sex are more vulnerable as a whole than men because of these tissues’ greater absorbency. Interestingly, however, we are not finding that women in casual relationships or even prostitutes are the ones accounting for the most significant numbers among new cases. Rather, these are among women in stable relationships whose husbands have had extramarital relations, either with other women or with men. This means we have to do more research on the model of partnership such couples adopt for their lives.
MR: That in itself raises a number of questions about sexuality and gender roles in Cuba…
MC: Yes, it does. And it’s also another indication of why education for safe sex must have a gender component, a gender approach.
Historically speaking, changing mentality is one of the most difficult things to do, one of the slowest processes in society. And, as in all societies, we have inherited gender stereotypes that bear serious critical analysis in order to change them. Even though we’ve made substantial political and legislative strides, we’re still bound by aspects of roles defined long ago. This subjectivity begins early, in the way children are raised, in how they’re taught to play. We have to learn to recognize which elements of the traditional masculinity or femininity are actually doing us damage. What parts of the picture actually take away from our freedom, fulfillment and dignity. We have to take a hard look at these things, or else we’ll keep passing them down from generation to generation.
MR: How are these manifested?
MC: In the family, for example, women are still the main ones responsible for domestic life and work, while men “own the street.” So when a child is born, we have women quite happy to take their maternity leave, but very few fathers taking advantage of their legal right to paternity leave. Women will stop working to take care of a sick relative – even though they might feel frustrated, they’ll do it. But very few men do.
There is still a tendency within families to teach boys how to become “machos,” not men. They grow up thinking they have to “have many women,” rather than pursue equitable, respectful relationships. The prism for the macho universe is the penis; while for a man, sexual relations are part of a human relationship. These are completely different viewpoints: the first is based on maintaining power over women, while the second shows the way towards an alternative construct of masculinity.
MR: And so how does this come into play in promoting practices of safe sex?
MC: We have to include a gender perspective – promotion of new constructs of masculinity and femininity – and not just take an epidemiological approach. For example, an epidemiologist might simply say: prevent HIV, use a condom. But we have to take into consideration how condoms are viewed in the “macho” framework – as a barrier to full sexual enjoyment, to which the “macho” is entitled at all costs, in a relation in which he’s exerting his power. So, for him to use a condom, he has to begin to construct and define his masculinity in a different way, that doesn’t put a premium only on his own pleasure. In the end, this stereotype is very dangerous to his own health as well as his partner’s – and this can be true for homosexual as well as heterosexual couples, whenever a relationship defines that one partner has hegemony over the other.
So, you need to combine both an epidemiological and a gender approach to these very intimate issues. This is why, for example, our posters and other materials emphasize that protection of your partner against HIV and STIs in general is a sign of caring, and that means it’s a responsibility of both partners in a relationship.
MR: How does CENESEX work with health promoters? And who are these promoters?
MC: We work with groups who promote safe sex among their peers: men who have sex with men, transvestites, and transsexuals; adolescents and young people in general; and then more broadly with medical students. In each medical school, there’s a department of Sexology and Education for Sexuality.
MR: Since you have raised the issue of men having sex with men (MSM), that leads me to ask about respect for sexual orientation in Cuba today. How does this influence, for example, women’s vulnerability to HIV and other STIs?
MC: We see cases of men who have had a stable relationship over the years with a woman or with another man – and then he’ll have an affair perhaps with a younger man, for which the tendency is not to use protection. And so in that single moment, he’s exposed himself to the risk of infection, and of course, also exposed his stable partner. Regarding attitudes towards MSM and bisexuals as well, there have been positive changes – I say that empirically, since we are still studying this. But at our conferences and workshops that we hold with people from the whole country, it’s clear that participants are more able now than ten years ago to understand and respect another sexual orientation. I think the work thats been done over the decade in health and by the Cuban Women’s Federation has helped bring about that change, and we’ve done it reaching out to people’s sensitivity as human beings.
In essence, our view is that any kind of prejudice or discrimination is damaging to health.
We need to do everything possible in Cuba to legitimize and ensure respect for sexual orientation because we’re confronting a traditional culture, like in many societies, with ingrained prejudice. How can we do this?
First, I think we have to work more and better in the schools. We’ve worked with the Ministry of Education, but I’m still not satisfied we’ve made enough progress, and so we need to deepen understanding among teachers and other school staff; we need to carry more on educational TV, and so on. And this also has to do with a gender focus, of course. In the 70s and 80s, we found a lot of fear and resistance to a national program for sex education with such a gender focus. The program was finally accepted in 1996, and now it’s taught throughout the country; since then it has reduced school dropouts from early marriages and childbirth by one half.
The country now has policies that legitimize sexual orientations and also has brought laws in line with a gender perspective. But on the legislative front, there is still a lot to be done. For example, homosexuals now live within the law in consensual relationships, but gay marriage is not recognized, so you have many issues such as inheritance that aren’t fully resolved. We need changes in the family code itself related to these and other questions, including domestic violence. CENESEX has now presented two bills in Parliament before the education and children’s commissions that have to do with gender, and these have been well received.