IN the present-day context, when practically all
newspapers are filled with reports of rape, I think it is very
important to educate both girls and boys about sex. Sex is certainly
not a dirty word. It has got such murky connotations that majority of
people shirk talking about it openly.Whose job is to educate the children about sex? Is it the job of society? Is the society aware of this responsibility? I do not think so. Then is it the media? Who is going to impart this very important education! Parents, I think. Parents have brought the children into this world and they have the moral responsibility of their well-being and safety.
First of all, the parents should talk to both the daughters and sons about ‘sex’. It is a natural phenomenon. They have to bridge the gap and satisfy their curiosity. This reminds me of an anecdote. A child asked her mother how she was born. The mother replied that her grandmother had found her in a bed of cabbage. So the little girl asked: “How was grandmother born?” The mother replied: “She was left by the stork in the apple tree.” The girl turned around and looked her mother in the eye and asked: “You mean to tell me there was not a single normal child birth in the family”. So tell them, parents, according to their age group, the truth.
Secondly, I feel the mothers should talk to their daughters very frankly about sex, especially after puberty. They have to tell them to be careful of any physical advances by male could be dangerous. It is really shocking but true, that 70% of rapes and molestations can be traced to close friends and relatives. If the girl is not forewarned, how would she know that the protector can turn predator. How would she react if the heinous act is committed against her by an uncle or a cousin? Then would the parents believe her?
The elderly people with their “holier-than-thou” image will go scot-free whereas the girl’s life will be scarred for the rest of her life. Her whole view about life would change. I still vividly remember a scene from some movie where a girl and her mother return happily from a shopping spree. Three men enter their apartment, snatch their money, kill the mother and rape the daughter and go away laughing The look on that girl’s face and the trauma were so real that I felt that that must be the fate of the unfortunate victims. That young girl could not bear the shock, turned a zombie and had to be institutionalised. What about the nurse in a Bombay hospital, who was raped by a ward boy and dumped in a dark room to die, but she survived and has been living the life of a vegetable?
Please, mothers take care of your daughters. Fathers, educate your sons, teach them to treat women with dignity and respect. Don’t give boys unlimited freedom and support the attitude that boys can get away with anything.
Teachers! Since the boys and girls spend six to seven hours in your care, it is your sacred duty to give them correct guidance, instil in them right values and right knowledge about sex. Society cannot escape its responsibilities. It should set up centres headed by psychiatrists to help boys and girls in need of advice regarding sex. I ask all men: When you do something evil to a women can’t that evil deed be done to your daughter, mother, sister? “Do unto others as you want them to do unto you?” should be your dictum.
Girls, beware! You should learn judo and karate to protect yourself. Don’t come in the glib talk of your friends and relatives who entice you to have sexual relationships. Boys! God has given you physical strength. Do not misuse it. Use it to protect rather than to destroy some girl’s life.
Sex education is the need of the hour, and parents and teachers should really do their duty by educating their children about the facts of life.
