Perception Of Sex In India

Perception of Sex in India

A Delhi court recently said that pre-marital sex is immoral according to the tenets of religion while it passed a judgement where consensual sex on the false promises of marriage will not be considered as rape. 

On one hand, people welcomed the judgement while on the other hand, the comment on pre-marital sex caused dissent among people. 

Indian courts have been known for these bizarre comments and judgements when it comes to sex. But aren't these ambiguous takes on sex by the courts resonate the deep rooted problem that our country is facing regarding the lack of sex education?

I tried to unfold the brouhaha around this word 'SEX' and tried to put forth what I perceive as the perception of sex in India.

Let's start with some irony, India is the second most populated country in the world. Yet our people refrain from talking about sex. Sex here is a sin, a paap. The topic of sex is brushed under the covers as soon as it arrives. But why? 

Schools teach children to write, to read but even the education system in India prefers to leave sex education at an individual's own peril. Parents feel embarrassed to talk about sex with their children.

A normal child starts developing urges towards sex during the early teens, at an age when we are curious to know the changes we are going through, we are kept oblivious to the details we should know.

We are groomed so as to have an overall development but with sex kept aside, is it really overall?

Moving on, in our society promiscuity and pre-marital sex are sins as well. Promiscuity is having casual physical relationships with multiple people while pre-marital sex is having sex before marriage(can be with 1 person and later marry that same person or with multiple partners). Now according to religions sex is sacred, it should be done with that one person you will marry. For a moment I might agree on this just to say that our country values the sanctity of religions but then the way people practice this is a blasphemy to those religions itself. A promiscuous girl is considered to be the one without any moral character, we have different derogatory names for girls like these while the same does not hold true for a promiscuous boy.

Virginity is another topic that is linked with hypocrisy in our society. It is somewhat necessary for a girl to be a virgin before her marriage while it is irrelevant for a boy, why???

What have we deduced till now, sex in India is a sin yet we have an ever increasing population, promiscuity & pre-marital sex is ok for boys but unacceptable for girls and a girl has to preserve her virginity while a boy is free to use his volition.

Everything comes down to sex education. Sex is not a mere method of reproduction but much more than that. People here need to know that. Sex is an act of love not an act of labour. 

Thinking about sex and its relation with India reminds me of Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series, 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'. Everyone knew he existed but no one really talked about him.  

If talking about sex is wrong because the whole act is a sin then why don't people stop doing it. If it is worth doing then it is worth talking as well.

The infrastructure of education needs a remodelling when it comes to sex education because everyone has a right to know.

This brings me to the comment of the Delhi court which termed pre-marital sex as immoral, according to me this comment resonated the thoughts of the masses. Many of us disagree with it but we are a small faction of people, dealing with issues pragmatically and not the mass.

Sex is something which is there since the inception of mankind, it the reason why the human race still exists, brushing it under the carpets when it comes to talking about it just doesn't sound right then. If this 'sex is a sin' concept continues to exist then these courts will continue to dictate the morality of actions that we perform inside the rooms with our own bodies.

I will end with a quote from John Lennon, "We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad day light".