India has the world’s second-largest population and is a fast-growing economy. But in spite of progress in other spheres, sex still remains a taboo topic in India.
There is a myth that women are worshipped in the south Asian country. But is this really true? There were 24,923 reported cases of rape in the year 2013, according to the NCRB annual report. This paints a very different picture of India.
Several widely advertised campaigns are taking place, such as ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ but why is there no campaign to curb the growing rate of rape and to create awareness among Indian citizens?
If sex education is normalised, if more people are able to understand the idea of consent, then surely there will be a reduction in the number of rapes. People then would easily be able to discuss the practice of safe and consensual sex.
When women are raped in our country, sometimes families think twice before filing an FIR because they do not want society to ‘gossip’ about them. Parents are scared of strangers in raising their voice for their children. No severe step is being taken by the Indian government over this.
Recently, an eight-year-old girl was raped, tortured and killed in Kathua. Talib Hussain, a tribal community leader said that there were torture and bite marks on her body and that she was also allegedly given electric shocks. Where’s our humanity? And still, sufficient measures have not been implemented to prevent such cases from occurring.
An 18-year-old girl from Unnao, Uttar Pradesh accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar of raping her. The girl was allegedly raped in June 2017, and the issue only came to light in April 2018 when the girl attempted self-immolation near the CM’s residence in Lucknow. She demanded an FIR against the MLA. An MLA is usually someone we choose to be the lawmaker. Is this ‘justice’ that our lawmakers are practising?
Sex education can help increase our understanding of sex and also help to differentiate between a consensual relation and an abusive one. We need to be able to talk about sex openly and in front of everyone. If students are taught about sex from the school level, then they would understand relationship dynamics better. Also, rape survivors would no longer have to hide due to social stigma. Their voices will become all the more powerful.