No Sex Please, We're Indian

While the attempt by the speakers at the forum to explain away the rise in teenage promiscuity in India as resulting from inadequate sex education is laudable, it does not go far enough. One needs to dig deeper to discover the roots of this recent phenomenon.

First, a brief explanation for those not familiar with Indian culture. Although still a relatively conservative society, societal mores are nowhere as rigid as they are in Islamic countries. For one thing, girls are not expected to cover themselves completely in public. Women are free to pursue higher education, careers and so on. Still, even though young people living in big towns and cities are allowed far greater freedoms than their counterparts in villages, it is not ‘done’ for ‘respectable’ young girls to mix freely with boys and go out on supervised dates.

Many people in India perceive Europe and America as decadent nations, where everyone goes round sleeping with everyone else. Not only is this notion highly exaggerated, these moralists may be surprised to know that incidents of STD, especially among teenagers, are less prevalent than they are in our "pure" nation. One reason for this is that boys and girls, from a very young age, mix socially and naturally. And when they grow up, they are friends before they become sexual partners. There is none of this 'taboo' nonsense that is so widespread in Indian society.

Teenagers will have biological urges. That is a fact of nature; and one that cannot be forcibly suppressed or wished away. Over-strict parents and our burgeoning population of 'moral policemen' are not achieving the desired result by portraying most interaction between the sexes as dangerous and sinful. On the contrary, they are driving their progeny into sexual encounters they would otherwise avoid. It is the classic forbidden fruit syndrome. It is forbidden, therefore it must be exciting.

Not that anything is going to change, I'm afraid." Khandan ki izzat" (family honor) and "what will people say" may be have become clichés in Hindi movies, but they are also social realities. Appearances are paramount; and losing face is regarded as the biggest calamity that could befall a family. And so, teenagers will continue to sneak off to dangerous liaisons, while their parents remain content in their blissful ignorance.