BENGALURU: In light of last week’s incident where a 40-year-old doctor was thrashed by a couple for complaining about the latter’s daughter asking her daughter to draw sex positions, several experts have renewed their demands for sex education in schools.
While both girls were grade 5 students, there arises the question as to when children should be given sex education considering that the present generation is more exposed to the outside world with increasing use of the internet. The preferred way to impart the sex education is by making it interactive, doing role plays, storytelling techniques and using audio visual aids, they say.
Though it is natural for a child to have curiosity about their body, gender, physical and emotional changes during their transition from childhood to adolescence, it is this time when they must be prepared in advance to welcome those changes, say experts.
Akanksha Pandey, clinical psychologist, Fortis Hospital. Pandey said that parents and teachers must not be evasive about questions related to sex and physical changes in the body. “They must use it as an opportunity to build a healthy rapport with their children. When their doubts are dealt in the right manner, they deal with this transition in a much healthier way,” she said.
According to Dr Naveen Jayaram, psychiatrist, Sakra World Hospital, children can be taught about good touch and bad touch from an early age. “In the Indian scenario, parents are not keen on talking to their children about these matters. So naturally, kids start getting influenced by peers, and curiosity will complicate matters,” he said.
Anitha Iyer, Principal, CMR National PU College said, “Imparting sex education to children has always been controversial. Most boards have reproductive systems introduced in grade 8 but not many are comfortable to talk about it in class. Only a handful of schools have now started looking at gender sensitisation sessions from grade 5 and are also having counsellors to address these issues.”
Some parents, however, choose to discuss these issues openly with their children. Bettina Rose, a parent of a grade 11 daughter said that she has been having conversations with her daughter from the age of 10. “I have had deep discussions with her on good and bad touch because once children leave their homes, they are exposed to everything, and giving them a heads-up about what is out there will help them make a good judgement of people,” she said.