TNIE takes a look at a pilot project under the comprehensive sex education framework for schoolchildren
Aparna Nair
Updated on: 12 Mar 2024, 10:42 am
4 min read
KOCHI: A pre-teen who was to take the HPV vaccine got this response from a leading gynaecologist in Kerala: “It is not so vital for Indian girls. The cultural context here is different from the West, where people get sexually active in their early teens. Here, it’s enough if you take the vaccine any time before you get married.”
The scene may be medically amiss when girls above nine years are being encouraged to take the vaccine that could curb instances of cervical cancer.
Such counsels from even experts are not a surprise, and are indicative of the conventional thought that aspects related to sex or gender are beyond ‘children’.
The fallout of such assumptions is youngsters landing in unanticipated trouble. To corroborate, one could check the annual report of the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights for 2022-23.
It says 4,582 cases were reported in Kerala under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. Of the survivors, 4,008 were girls and 578 boys. And among those involved, 16 per cent were lovers and 12 per cent were neighbours.
The report reflected two major areas that called for attention — the need among children to better assess whom to make friends or relations with, and awareness of Pocso laws and child-friendly procedures.
“We had found a similar lack of awareness while working on an earlier project regarding menstrual issues,” says Anson P D Alexander, director of Kanal Innovations Charitable Trust, which embarks on educational projects in association with the state machinery.“It showed us that the lack of awareness about menstruation was not a standalone issue, but reflected the total darkness the children were in on matters related to sexuality and gender. This often led them to make wrong decisions and dangerous experimenting, and made some victims of predators.”
Anson says there was a pressing need that was left hushed up, mostly because educators seemed to believe that sex education was something that needed only to be part of biology lessons.
This lacuna sparked a series of discussions between government agencies and the NGO. Subsequently, a scheme to facilitate a “comprehensive sex education (CSE) framework” in schools — titled Project X — was set rolling.
“The CSE was envisaged as an initiative that would include a proper insight into relationship dynamics, information about the body, the laws covering children, etc. The CSE decision was the need of the hour. The number of child abuse cases could have led to the move,” says Thiruvananthapuram Assistant Collector Akhil V Menon.
Based on the deliberations, District Collector Geromic George convened a curriculum constitution committee under District Development Commissioner Aswathy Srinivas, comprising experts from various government departments.
The modules were drafted in association with Kanal trust in an age-appropriate manner for students of Classes 9,10, 11, and 12. The material was then vetted by the general education department.
A member of the Kanal trust says it had earlier tried to implement a similar venture in Thrissur, but received a “cold response” from the government departments there. “It reflected the general attitude of even educators towards this topic,” he sighs.Subsequently, the first phase of the pilot project was launched last year across 50 government schools, covering 5,530 students, in Thiruvananthapuram.
The modules included subtopics that touched upon the introduction to human sexuality, relationships, sexual orientation, reproductive health, responsible sexual behaviour, sexual hygiene, and sexual rights.
“The modules covered mental health issues as well,” says Anson. “The language of delivery was Malayalam, and the modules had titles such as ‘Namukkariyaan, namme ariyaan’, and ‘Nammal engine nammalaayi’,” he explains.
“There was also a module titled ‘Panivarunnundu, Avaracha’ on child abuse, and awareness of Pocso Act, Juvenile Justice Act, and IT Act. There were separate sessions for boys and girls, especially the question-and-answer ones. All the topics were covered in two hours, with 40 minutes given for questions and answers.”
The modules were offered in an age-appropriate manner. A child is more prone to kinds of abuse that he or she cannot understand or communicate — mostly till seven or eight years. But in schools now, the sessions for Pocso are given in Class 5, when the child is 10 years old. “There is a need to include sessions for younger children,” says a trainer.
Before and after the pilot sessions, a questionnaire was circulated to gauge the awareness level of the participating students. “The results were striking,” says a member of the Project X team.
“About 63 per cent of those who participated in the surveys were girls, and the rest boys. Of this, 1.93 per cent knew of menstruation and related aspects before the sessions. After the session, the awareness shot up to 93.33 per cent.”
The highlight was the relation between ‘brain and sex’. Just about 0.22 per cent knew before the sessions and 97.7% said they knew of the relation after the sessions.
On more serious topics, only 28.34% knew of the Pocso Act and by the end of the sessions, 98.12 per cent said they had a clear idea about the Act. On what constitutes a toxic relationship, just about 3.96 per cent knew before the project sessions. This rose to 95.02 per cent after the sessions.
“We plan to implement the project on a wider scale,” says Akhil. “Now, it is just a two-hour session limited to 100 students from each school. To reach out wider and to sustain the training momentum, we have included 200 teachers from 100 schools in the training process as part of Project X’s second phase.”
For a start, the Scheduled Tribes department has evinced interest in the project for the schools under it. “But we will have to customise the modules as per the requirement of the tribal schools,” says a senior official.
The Ernakulam district administration, too, is planning to implement the project. “It is in the nascent stage. We have plans to implement it in schools here. Coordinators have shortlisted some schools for a trial run,” says Ernakulam sub-collector K Meera.
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