"Australian Sex Education Practices Offer a Model for India to Address Societal Challenges"

Highlights:

The article compares sex education in Australia and India, emphasizing the need for early sensitization in addressing issues of objectification and sexual health.

In Australia, comprehensive sex education is mandatory from preschool to year 12, based on international standards and UNESCO guidance.

The author highlights a disturbing incident involving an Indian student in England, attributing it to a lack of awareness about women's psyche, body, emotions, and consent due to inadequate education in India.

The importance of training students going abroad not only in academic aspects but also in understanding social norms and cultural differences is emphasized.

The article explores how sex education in Australia contributes to a healthier dating culture, fostering mutual respect, understanding, and informed decision-making among youth.

The author links the absence of a dating culture in India to factors such as the caste system, historical mistreatment of women, and societal prejudices.

The article advocates for creating a safe environment for women in India, stopping the objectification of women, and junking the caste system to advance societal progress.

The conclusion emphasizes the need for early and comprehensive sex education to sensitize men, promote respect for women's rights, and eliminate societal barriers to women's freedom and choices.

The author, V.S.S Advait, is an M.S student from Australia, sharing insights and observations about the cultural differences between India and Australia.

Sex education in Australia, a practice to emulate in India

In Australia, where I have come to study, I have been at the recieving end culture shock. I’d like to outline the differences between Indian society and Australian society by addressing a highly sensitive topic “Sex Education and Objectification of Women”. In all the schools in Australia, every boy and girl are sensitized by imparting sex education from an early age. This is mandatory. Sexual health is taught across Australian schools from preschool to year 12. The national syllabus is based on child developmental theory, which considers the physical, emotional, and psychological stages of human maturing, according to the international scientific standards. The resources are reflective of the UNESCO’s international guidance on sexuality education, which has been evaluated and upgraded for decades.

Recently a 20-year-old Indian student studying in England raped a fully drunk English girl by carrying her from the car to his flat totally unaware of the CC cameras. The poor chap was given imprisonment sentence of 7 years! He is from a small north Indian village in India. He got admission into a good university with scholarship and according to the reports, he even got good grades in his studies right from the childhood. Just imagine a second! He is a very fragile, young kid and his life and career have been shattered completely. Why did this happen?This is because these guys have no knowledge about sensitive things like women’s psyche, body, emotions, and consent. How can they know? They were never sensitized about women in school and college. In fact, I will go on to say that for these guys, a girl appears like an alien! As soon as he sees a girl in a vulnerable situation, he imagines himself as Vijay Devananda in Arjun Reddy and he behaves in the same way with girls! When a well-educated person behaves in this way, imagine how an uneducated person behaves in India. How terrifying it is for society?

The students who go abroad are checked for the genuiness of their certificates, visa, passport and the linguistic abilities but are not trained to respond appropriately to the social mores existing in the culturally different foreign lands.

In the Australian context, why would an Australian college boy objectify a girl when he is sensitized right from pre-school to year 12 about a girl's body, emotions, consent, etc. Why would a boy feel uncomfortable and shy when he dates a girl in his late teens? What actually happens in dating? In dating, the immature and tender late teens of the opposite sex try to understand each other's emotions and sensitivities. In that maturing late teen age, they get intimate and satisfy their sexual urges with proper consent, thanks to the sex education. According to the statistical figures, the average age of losing virginity in Australia is 16-18. That pretty much sums up everything. The youth have proper understanding of the choices and consents. With dating, they are getting to know each other's feelings. They are able to identify the red cards in their personalities. If they feel they are not compatible in their future goals and choices, they mutually end the relationship and find another one. Everyone respects the feelings and personal choices of others. This mutual respect and understanding can be brought only with proper sensitization of men and women through sex education right from the childhood. As a result, in Australia, majority of youth in 20s (if not all) are brimming with confidence in their lives. They are lively and they don't have inhibitions and shyness. They can sustain concentration in their studies for long hours. Their productivity is increased by leaps and bounds. Their creativity is at another level. This is backed by proper factual evidence in many research studies. This trend is present in almost all the first-world countries. Innovation capabilities of the youth of early 20s in first-world countries are very high.

I believe the caste system is solely responsible for the lack of dating culture in India. Unfortunately, the caste feelings are increasing day by day in India because of bloody caste politics! Even in the 21st century, political parties are associated with caste in India. Due to prejudices, superstitions and inferiorities, people are not able to come out of the caste riddle. Caste is deeply entrenched in the blood of every Indian! Untrained to be at ease with the opposite sex, we hear many distortions in the use of the dating application Tinder which is anyway accessible only to a very few mostly upper and upper middle class people.

The historical social status of women in India might be another reason behind lack of dating culture in India. For thousands of years, woman's position in India is pathetic, especially upper caste woman. Women were sold like objects for marriage not so long ago in India. I heard from my mom that one of her grandmothers was sold to her grandfather from the neighboring state. This continued upto 1960s, I guess. Woman had no say in the household, even in her marriage. They were treated like objects in Indian households for hundreds of years. Until recently, women had no say in selection of grooms. Only the groom would say whether he liked the bride or not. The bride was not even consulted.

For Dating culture to happen, the first thing required is the respect and acknowledgement of woman's personal rights by elders. She should be allowed to go out and explore. Otherwise, how can you expect such a society to respect women's choices and rights? Certainly, there are many men who respect women’s rights, choices, and their freedom in India. We should be glad that their number is increasing year on year. But the overall number is still very low, which is a matter of concern

To conclude, Indian society should be made safe for women. Objectification of women should be stopped. Exposure to movies objectifying women and the no-holds-barred sexual content and the ubiquitous availability of pornography without sex education will only perpetuate the sex related crimes.

Men must have utmost respect to women’s body, personal choices, desires and wants. The only way to do it is by sensitizing the men from a very early age by imparting sex education. And the stench of caste system and its associated prejudices and superstitions should be completely junked out of Indian fabric. A country is said to be advanced only if a woman can walk freely at night without fear, her choices are respected and if she can choose her partner herself with complete freedom by self-exploration! Let's be positive and hope best for India.