Sex and sexualities are such a taboo topic in India that channels of communication to relegate to the doubts that arise while growing up, go unanswered. Schools that serve as the potential sites of learning about all of this also remain closed to such conversations. The Adolescence Education Programme, of which sexual health was a small part, never made it to the final National Education Policy (NEP) despite being part of the draft. Additionally, the Teacher Training Manual on Transgender-Inclusive School Education by the NCERT was scrapped due to a petition filed with the NCPCR in 2021. The petitioner had four key issues with the manual- a) “removing binaries shall deny them (school children) equal rights” b) school may be exposed to “unnecessary psychological trauma due to contradictory environments at home and school”, (c) the mention of puberty blockers and their availability for adolescents, and (d) the qualifications and credentials of the drafting committee.
My research aims to look at sources of dissemination of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) for adolescents by imagining the school and classroom in particular as the site of intervention. Even though studies across the globe establish efficacy of such a model, the idea of 'childhood' and 'morality' takes away from young people their agency over their bodies. Taking my experience as a trained Sexuality Educator and a research scholar, I aim to employ methods of participatory action research to bring in a model that is cohesive to the cultural contexts by engaging stakeholders, and take this model to governing authorities.
This paper would discuss the challenges that arise in starting a conversation around CSE in the Indian context basing it on interviews with stakeholders, recording personal experience as an educator, and discussion of some practical tools employed in classroom setups to reduce biases among students.
