"Sex education should not at all be included in the curriculum of school children. It will destroy their immature brain," was the point of a viewer shown on a private television channel in Bihar. Another primary schoolteacher said, "Not school children across India are open to the chapters of sex education. We belong to a conservative society." Had these people got the proper sex education while schooling, perhaps they would have actually known the content and the value of it.

Rural population covers as much as three quarters of the Indian population sphere, its cultural sensitivity and 'unacceptability' here was considered the prime reason for the denial of sex education in schools. Not to forget, it's the same rural India that is also a silent house of several social problems like, HIV/AIDS due to unsafe sex, female foeticide, early marriage, teenage pregnancy, flesh trade, trafficking, ill-treatment to females during menstruation, etc. The above problems find its properanswers only in the chapters of sex education; the rural population thus becomes the real target to be taught of this vital learning.

Another known fact is the incomplete schooling and early school drop-outs', the rural children Point of View frequently indulge in. As a result, the essence of sex (adolescent) education, age for marriage, norms for safe pregnancy, maternal-child health care, etc cannot reach many a rural habitants, leading to this present day high rate social problems in ruralIndia. Also a fact is, not many of the poor rural children have 'access and afford' to higher education after completing school. The very education till secondary level with poor infrastructure and academic facilities speak of the quality and applicability of the classroom lessons.

That 5.2 million Indians are infected with HIV/Aids. The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) reported that 60,000 infants were born with HIV infection in 2005. And experts say only 10% are aware of their status. The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) is still a shocking 57 per 1,000 births, higher than Bangladesh and Namibia and about double that of Egypt. Most importantly, the booming population of the country occupying 16.9% of the world population in just 2.4% of global land area is a matter that has to be seriously focused on. 1,029 million in 2001 will grow into 1,400 million in 2025-26. The perks and gifts coming along with it will be a surprise India is eagerly waiting to taste.

Circumstances thus insist that sex education finds its real audience in the rural theatre. But the government and committee say that our 'rurals' are a conservative lot, not yet ready to accept such a learning program. An editorial message in The Times of India [July 19] would give an appropriate answer to this – "A nation with a population in excess of a billion is clearly not abstaining from sex. But India refuses to speak about the birds and bees openly. Opposition to sex education is a case of misplaced morality….. The longer we hang on to our outdated attitude towards sex, the dearer the price we will pay for coming generations." While the debate was red hot, a known Indian minister recently suggested parents to withdraw their children in CBSE schools, which contained in its syllabus topics of sex education.