There was a appalling silence for almost a minute…. And it was uncomfortable especially considering the laugh riot we were having few moments earlier until some body mentioned the word “SEX” which unbelievably sent everybody in to their shells. The eyes avoided each other’s direct attention and few looked like as if they would rather bury themselves in a deep hole beneath ground rather being alive at that very moment. Somebody decided to break the dead air” Come on guys, let us not discuss such topics”. “Such topic? What do you mean by that? I intercede. “We are living in 21st century and supposedly the new generation which should take responsibility of spreading the right information and be open to discuss your so called “such topics”.
This is what happens day in day out across the streets, houses, even pubs, offices, market places and now even in the political corridors too! The Indian society has long lived in the shadow of avoiding the taboo of sexuality. I still remember the joke, which at our school we used to play with friends, which goes some thing like…”Some dum has come to meet you!”…Kaun Dum? And then goes a big hoo haa and laugh riot enough to embarrass the poor chap who does not realize that he has just uttered a word which has been long forbidden from the so called civilized and open society of our country where by just mention of the word “Condom” can make you under a trauma of social embarrassment and he makes sure that this embarrassment does not carry forward to his children so he decided to keep his mouth shut on “such” issues and avoid any mention of a term even remotely linked with sex, condoms or even burning issues like AIDS/HIV which need an urgent attention by not one but all.
Talking about everybody, our government is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that our tradition of avoidance and ignorance continues and at the same time boasts of a government, which is committed to uproot the epidemic of AIDS from the country. We never suspect Laloo Prasad Yadav that he thinks much about family planning, now he justifies it with opposing Sex education in country. Dr. Harshvardhan , the former Health Minister is of firm belief that the country can do without sex education. He of course lived his life without any such education and now he wants the trend to continue with the next generation. What our politicians do not understand that they were not faced with an epidemic of a scale as big as HIV/AIDS and they followed the easier and convenient path of non mention of sexuality in their books, discussions (with no denial to the fact that Pamela Anderson must have made them crave more and more “information” which was easily available through magazines which only to be founded in the back seats of their toilet seats.
Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi, senior member of NDA has gone even further. “The teaching of sex education will lead to creation of an immoral society and will also collapse the education system”. Immoral society! Collapse of education system!!
Yes, you are right Mr. Joshi, no education of sex would only contribute in building high morals in the society and would do the entire education system a proud with the numbers of increasing cases of AIDS/HIV, rapes, sexual assault etc.
There is a clear understanding and empathizing with the fact that the speed with which the society is changing, it might be disturbing and a little uncomfortable for the oldies and rightly so. But the protest here is against the vulgarity, expression of sexuality in open and exposure of uncensored information through wrong channels to the next generation but definitely NOT against sex education. Most of the protestors have taken the term wrongly. Sex education is nothing but clear source of information about sex and teaches the youngsters on how to be a responsible citizen and a family person. The protests are defintelely NOT against the condom promotion but rather the mass media, which promotes its use in obscene and vulgar manner. (How many of us feel comfortable watching the advertisement of Amul Macho and for that matter Durex when our parents are around ?)
The corrected figures of HIV infected cases in India is still a grave area of concern with almost 2.5 million of population is in the trap and growing at an alarming rate promising to be soon bypassing Africa to be the number one. Responsible nations across the world have adopted a pragmatic approach in dealing with this monster and it takes nothing more than shrugging off your ego to come out of this social stigma and embarrassment.
Government or no government, the fact of the matter is that the solution to the situation lies with youth, so next time your friend stops you to discuss “such” topics, ask him and encourage him to “Bindaas Bol”
This is what happens day in day out across the streets, houses, even pubs, offices, market places and now even in the political corridors too! The Indian society has long lived in the shadow of avoiding the taboo of sexuality. I still remember the joke, which at our school we used to play with friends, which goes some thing like…”Some dum has come to meet you!”…Kaun Dum? And then goes a big hoo haa and laugh riot enough to embarrass the poor chap who does not realize that he has just uttered a word which has been long forbidden from the so called civilized and open society of our country where by just mention of the word “Condom” can make you under a trauma of social embarrassment and he makes sure that this embarrassment does not carry forward to his children so he decided to keep his mouth shut on “such” issues and avoid any mention of a term even remotely linked with sex, condoms or even burning issues like AIDS/HIV which need an urgent attention by not one but all.
Talking about everybody, our government is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that our tradition of avoidance and ignorance continues and at the same time boasts of a government, which is committed to uproot the epidemic of AIDS from the country. We never suspect Laloo Prasad Yadav that he thinks much about family planning, now he justifies it with opposing Sex education in country. Dr. Harshvardhan , the former Health Minister is of firm belief that the country can do without sex education. He of course lived his life without any such education and now he wants the trend to continue with the next generation. What our politicians do not understand that they were not faced with an epidemic of a scale as big as HIV/AIDS and they followed the easier and convenient path of non mention of sexuality in their books, discussions (with no denial to the fact that Pamela Anderson must have made them crave more and more “information” which was easily available through magazines which only to be founded in the back seats of their toilet seats.
Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi, senior member of NDA has gone even further. “The teaching of sex education will lead to creation of an immoral society and will also collapse the education system”. Immoral society! Collapse of education system!!
Yes, you are right Mr. Joshi, no education of sex would only contribute in building high morals in the society and would do the entire education system a proud with the numbers of increasing cases of AIDS/HIV, rapes, sexual assault etc.
There is a clear understanding and empathizing with the fact that the speed with which the society is changing, it might be disturbing and a little uncomfortable for the oldies and rightly so. But the protest here is against the vulgarity, expression of sexuality in open and exposure of uncensored information through wrong channels to the next generation but definitely NOT against sex education. Most of the protestors have taken the term wrongly. Sex education is nothing but clear source of information about sex and teaches the youngsters on how to be a responsible citizen and a family person. The protests are defintelely NOT against the condom promotion but rather the mass media, which promotes its use in obscene and vulgar manner. (How many of us feel comfortable watching the advertisement of Amul Macho and for that matter Durex when our parents are around ?)
The corrected figures of HIV infected cases in India is still a grave area of concern with almost 2.5 million of population is in the trap and growing at an alarming rate promising to be soon bypassing Africa to be the number one. Responsible nations across the world have adopted a pragmatic approach in dealing with this monster and it takes nothing more than shrugging off your ego to come out of this social stigma and embarrassment.
Government or no government, the fact of the matter is that the solution to the situation lies with youth, so next time your friend stops you to discuss “such” topics, ask him and encourage him to “Bindaas Bol”
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