Case study: Wait… sex education in India?

A Design Project for Social Change done in collaboration with Puroo Kumar Roy and Divyansh.

Education is important for personal growth and development. However, over the last decades we have failed to develop our education system to accommodate changing needs of students and society in general. Sex Education has been described as an impossible programme to introduce in our country. Families, educational institutes, policymakers all refuse to acknowledge its requirement in our nation. This design project looks at the pros and cons of sex education in India and delivers a democratic solution to give people a safe alternate way to explore the world of sex and sexuality.

Background

Due to cultural biases we have long refused to talk about importance of teaching about sex and sexuality in a safe and democratic manner. In India, it is considered wrong to say “sex.” Moreover, talking to a school full of impressionable children or providing university students access to safe sexual health medications is seen with taboo. Old and young alike look at those who talk about sex with medieval prejudices, which indeed do not stand the test of time yet they are not forgotten.

From a young age our schools and families alike teach us not to talk about sex to protect us from bad influences. We do not talk about private body parts, sexual harassment, cyber crimes and sexual and gender identities because they are considered unhealthy for impressionable minds of children teenagers and young adults alike. We often hear it is not a good time time to teach about serious and complicated issues like sex. However, it is important to question when is a good time to talk about sex and sexuality? When is a good time to talk about menstruation and benefits? When is a good time to teach about pornography, cyber harassment, revenge porn? When is a good time to teach anything?

Comprehensive vs Abstinence

Abstinence-only sex education is a form of sex education that teaches not having sex outside of marriage. It often excludes other types of sexual and reproductive health education, such as birth control and safe sex. In our country abstinence is the standard practice to reject any progress in teaching complex issues related to sexuality. Abstinence not only reject progress in our education system, it also suppress discussion about self determination and identity of an individual. Abstinence sex education has made our society less open to change and averse to discussion on important issues like menstrual hygiene, human rights, crimes against women and children.

Comprehensive sex education is a form of sex education that uses open discussion to teach sex education to individual in schools, universities and outside educational institutions. Comprehensive sex education is age appropriate, scientifically accurate, culturally competent, and grounded in human rights, gender equality, and a positive approach to sexuality and sexual pleasure, on the basis that sex education impacts general health, adaptation to the environment, quality of life, and helps to live optimally by choice.

Many individuals in India do not have access to sex education, it has led gross misunderstanding of sex and sexual pleasure in our country. The complex emotional state in which youth find themselves in, stigma surrounding matters of a sexual nature in the Indian society and widespread gender inequality faced makes it increasingly challenging for youth to attain the knowledge they need.

Sex Education Around the World

Indian Subcontinent

India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal do not have a single coordinated nationwide sex education programme. Sri Lanka does teach the biological aspects and touches social aspects but it’s not enough. The Adolescents Education Program in India was rejected in India as it was seen as an act of promoting promiscuity in children.

South East Asia

Governments have taken steps to impart sex education in schools in recent years but it is grossly inadequate. Situation can improve if the government takes a more actively role to implement sex education in older individuals in countries like Vietnam and Thailand.

North America

Almost all students receive some form of sex education in schools. Due to better facilities available and open mindedness of the society it is easier to communicate on such topics. However states and federal law vary in degree of implementation leading to unevenness in sex education.

South America

Families, Doctors and schools have come up short in communicating with adolescents and youth about sexuality causing them to fall prey to increasing sex crimes and their own ignorance. Issues like reproductive health and abortion are extremely controversial issues due to differing political ideologies and religious doctrines.

Europe

European countries like Denmark, France, Switzerland have made strides in providing comprehensive Sex Education to students in schools and promote healthy relationship in older youth of the country. Sex Education and its campaign’s main objective is to teach the youth to differentiate between right and wrong regarding sex.

Policy Timeline in India

• 1938: Family planning, birth control, instruction and demonstration of sex education was first discussed
• Post independence discussion were held regarding family planning by the union government
• Sex education in India started as method to educate people about increasing population size
• 1969: Govt. decided to develop population education program
• 1971: NCERT draft syllabus on population education had sex education in 2 points
• forced sterilization drives were conducted in the 1970s.
• April 1980: National population Education Project was launched
• 1990s: Saw a shift from population based education to Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ARSH)
• 1993: Adolescence Education formerly adopted as a part of school education on Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health
• 1994: Abstinence based education policy and focus on societal norms
• 2003: National youth Policy called for education on sexuality
• 2006: Adolescence Education Program launched

Primary research

For our primary research we prepared and conducted surveys and interviews. Before conducting we identified many areas of intervention such as culture & society, family planning, consent, sexual violence, lack of awareness, taboo prejudices, sex addiction, institution based sex education, conversation and sexual health.

For making the surveys, we conducted in formal conversations with people to understand what bothers them about sex,sexuality and sex education. We asked questions on things such as when and how they learnt of sex, and what they perceive of it. We also asked them if the country was ready to accept a new method of sex education or not, or whether sex education should be the same to all genders. Overall we received around 100 respondents for our survey.

For preparing the questions for the interview, we categorized our questions into different categories depending on the age, gender and whether or not they are parents. We asked questions regarding their views on sex education, how they discuss about sex education in their family, can a more interactive sex education program be incorporated within our education system, if they have witnessed an incident of sexual misconduct etc. We wrote down all their suggestions and opinions regarding the root cause behind our problem and how to solve it. Overall we interviewed 15 respondents for it. Interviews were conducted over call and call recording were kept with the permission of the interviewee. While conducted interviews with women, a female colleague asked question as women were more comfortable talking to girls about sex and sexuality.

Analysis of the Information

By the means of the surveys, interviews and our own research, we were able to come up with a better analysis of the situation. Interview responses provided us with a new perspective. A few common points from the interview are as follows.

Sex education begins from home through the parents, who are supposed to be the first guidance children approach for the same. Parents are normally uncomfortable to talk about the situation, so it’s usually the mother who initiates the conversation and there too, she is reluctant to confront the child directly over the topic.

Most of the respondents we interviewed said that in school when it was taught for the first time, teachers used to either be very strict when teaching the chapter or they used to skim through it as they themselves didn’t want to talk about it. Since textbooks do not teach everything the students need to know about, they have to use other sources such as the internet or friends to know more about it. It is the first step one takes towards pornography without the required knowledge of the topic.

Another thing we learnt from our interviews and surveys is that everyone hesitates from talking about sex education from their parents or other elders. However, they are absolutely comfortable while talking about it to their friends or other people of their age. It happens due to the assumption that elders are less tolerant towards sex than youngsters. It also gives one surety that they know exactly as much about sex education as someone of or around their own age. This is the reason why a teenager will readily take information about sex education from another teenager over a young adult.

Finally everyone said that they do not believe the current education system of India is ready to incorporate a different and a more interactive form of sex education. There are a number of reasons behind this, like Indian education system is all about memorizing the terms and writing them in the exam, the teachers will still be of the same conservative mentality, the students will still not take it seriously etc.

Problem identification

We also identified key insights from our primary and secondary research. These insights were important in understanding the needs of the primary stakeholders. These insights are as follows:

1. Sex Education must be universal
2. Sex Education must cover topics that matter
3. Use of media in Sex Education is necessary
4. Exploration of Sexuality must take place in an healthy manner
5. Sex Education should be flexible and yet provide same knowledge to all

The needs identified are as followed:

1. Communication
2. Awareness
3. Efficiency
4. Universal
5. Relevant
6. accessible

To identify the problem, we had to target many fields. These fields included conversation among family, consent, sexual health, culture and society, lack of awareness, sexual violence, sex addiction, family planning, institution based sex education and taboos and prejudices. The following questions were formulated as they had the potential of having maximum impact on the lives of the people.

1. How might we create a solution that helps make families more accepting towards sex education?
2. How might we educate young people living in urban centers of India about their fundamental and sexual health rights?
3. How might we design an intervention to promote good sexual health practices and create awareness over the behavior and conduct among young people living in the urban areas?
4. How might we design a solution to increase access to information on sex education for young people living in urban centers of India?

Problem Statement

We developed a single problem statement from a multitude of problem statements identified earlier. The aim of the single problem statement is to direct our efforts in a single direction. Problem statement must not be a limiting statement and it should have enough room to explore and develop new ideas and understanding. Our final problem statement was as follows,

“There are several myths, traditions and cultural conventions that might have made sense in the past but not today. But they have traveled generations and are accepted blindly today. How might we design an intervention to increase awareness about Sex & Sexuality in our society and promote a sex positive culture ?”

There are 4 underlying problems that we needed to remember before ideating solutions. They are as follows,

1. Lack of awareness
2. Lack of understand
3. Lack of choice and Self determination
4. Inaccurate information

Ideation

For the ideation, we took three different methods — brain dumping, brainstorming and brain writing. We came up with around 70 solutions for the given problem statement. Ideation was conducted over a week. First we were committed to generation of ideas without any preconceived notions. This phase was important as we reverted back to the problem statement and the prior research many times to stay on track and generate ideas that made sense in the context established.

Once all ideas were generated, we discussed the merits and demerits of each idea. Merits and demerits helped us improve and reject ideas. We also grouped many ideas under different umbrellas like print design, exhibition design etc. After weighing all possible ideas worth exploring we focused on creating criteria to filter down the ideas and come up with a final solution.

Final ideas

After filtering through many ideas during ideation we narrowed down to few possible solutions. These solutions were important for their uniqueness and universality.

Introduction to Sex Education Book

Goals:

• To design a guide for people to explore sex education
• Talk about relevant topics related to sexuality

Target: Provide introductory knowledge to young adults

Nature: Print Design

Channels: Books

About: An introductory book talking about sexuality and communicating basic information to young adults and compel them to learn more about sexuality and expand their knowledge on sex, gender, relationships etc.

Visual Identity for Sex Education in India

Goals:

• To communicate correct information on Sex Education in India
• Help people overcome their doubts and fears

Target: Sensitize parents and younger generation

Nature: Identity Design

Channels: Public spaces, social media, Print media

About: An identity design for Sex education program in India. The main objective to position sex education as indigenous to our country and familiarize people with sexuality to overcome deep rooted, misguided cultural beliefs. The identity design can make sex education normal in raising of younger generation and foster conversation in adults.

Designing Interventions

There are two design interventions we focused as part of our final design intervention. They are as follows:

“To design a Brand Identity of a Social Impact Enterprise working in India to promote Comprehensive Sex Education and lay the foundation of a strong Sex Positive Culture accessible to youngsters in our society.”

And

“To design a book as an effort to promote Sex Education in India and communicate safe & relevant knowledge to those who wish to self explore the vast expanse of Sex Education as well as understand the true meaning of sex and Sexuality.”

Final Design

Design Intervention 1

Based on the first design brief the following is our first design solution. The following is an explanation of the Identity design for the Organisation.

Social Enterprise Name: C.L.A.P. : A Sex Education Enterprise

Domain: Sex Education Organisation

Description: C.L.A.P. is a fictional social enterprise with the vision of bringing Comprehensive Sex Education to the mainstream. It promotes an open sex positive culture in our society and generate interest in general masses on sex education.

It strives to start a fruitful conversation about sex and sexuality. It aims to occupy the place of an accessible social enterprise bringing sex education built for the current Indian society.

We decided to keep the Enterprise’s name C.L.A.P. for the following reasons:

• Consent: The act of asking permission of others before engaging in any sexual activity. Consent is important towards respecting others wishes. For our society to be more equal it is important we accept and respect others needs and wants. Consent in many ways free us to explore our sexuality and protect us from predatory and misgivings.
• Liberation: The act of gaining freedom from oppression is important for making personal choices. Abstinence and secrecy surrounding our own sexuality makes us less free to make choices. Breaking these chains can help us liberate ourselves and our views on our sexuality.
• Acceptance: The act of accepting others as they are, is important for tolerance. Tolerance for other gender and sexual identities show our strong belief in equality and respect for personal choice. By accepting others we solidify our own personal rights and choices in the eyes of others.
• Pleasure: The act of looking beyond reproduction and looking at sex as natural, eventual act of love pleasure can help alleviate many taboo and prejudices. Sex as a pleasurable experience can redefine our views on gender and sexual equality.

What do we do to create impact ?

CLAP wants to create impact by focusing on four important aspects:

Institutions: Work with different institutions

Technology: Using Mobile App & Social Media

Collaborations: Working with like minded people

Accessibility: Using different media to increase reach ability

How do we do it?

CLAP believes in developing a framework to impart sex education in a non intrusive manner. This is achieved through 4 steps:

1. Creating age appropriate Content
2. Developing C.L.A.P. Events
3. Developing C.L.A.P. Publications
4. Developing content for C.L.A.P. Application

How do we Impact their Journey?

CLAP can impact the lives of many by following the steps mentioned below:

1. Join CLAP
2. Attend CLAP events
3. Read CLAP materials
4. Use CLAP application for new updated content
5. Seek Counselling Support from CLAP

Design Intervention 2

Our Second Solution is a book we design based on the second design brief. The following is an explanation for the book.

Book Name: The Better Side of You. A Guide to Sex Education

Domain: Social Impact, Comprehensive Sex Education

Description: The Book is an introductory guide covering important topics related to Sex Education. It communicates basic information to the readers in two languages English and Hindi. The book explains the topics in easy to understand language and promotes self exploration of the book. With the help of illustration accompanying various sections, understanding of the topics can increase, helping the reader visualize the knowledge.

Channels: Books, E-Books, Audio Books

Nature: Print Design

Target: Provide introductory knowledge to young adults

Synopsis

Sex Education is an important aspect of our growth as an individual. With proper access to knowledge related to sexuality, our society as a whole can develop and accept different ideas. The topics covered in the book are an introduction to the various topics under comprehensive sex education.

We hope to inspire you to explore more about sexuality on your own and this book acts as a guide in your journey. We hope that by learning more about sexuality it will deepen your relationships with others that surround you.

Objectives

The objective of the book is to make Comprehensive Sex Education easy. This book is an easy first step towards self exploration of our own sex and sexuality. The book is written in two languages to facilitate use by all. The book will help in understanding the importance of Sex Education. It helps you in making a correct road map for your exploration and makes learning about sexuality a thrilling, informative experience.

To fully utilize the book, use other resources like seminars and workshops to learn more about sexuality. Engaging with this book and other resources like videos, animations, workshops etc. can help understand Sex Education on a deeper level and spread the message of comprehensive Sex Education.

Layout and Typography

We have used grids to place illustrations, text and headings to keep everything organised and easy to understand hierarchy. For typography we used Raleway for English heading, Montserrat for English text, Nirmala UI for Hindi heading and Aparajita for Hindi text.

Potential Impact

Brand Identity Design

The solutions created for the Sex Education can have a large impact on our primary stakeholders as well as on our society. We will outline the benefits of the solutions one by one, starting from C.L.A.P. Social Enterprise for Sex Education.

C.L.A.P. can bring attention to Sex Education, the needs of adolescents, youngsters of our country and educate individuals from various socio-economic background on subjects such as sexuality education, social ethics, Sexual responsibility, and inter personal skills. C.L.A.P. can educate the masses by introducing sexuality education in school curriculum as well as university coursework. It can also educate the masses through print media and social media campaigns.

They can work with various government agencies and follow their independent projects urban and rural to make more impact. Their impact can be far and wide as they can address issues related gender and sexual identity and violence against children and women.

As an organisation devoted to improving sexuality literacy in India, they can conduct policy research and develop programs for the government and its organisation. Future potential impact can be in the form of consultancy to other educational organisations, government and other NGOs.

The Better side of you

The book is designed for improving access to Sex Education. The book can be used by older teenagers and young adults to understand basic concepts of sex and sexuality. It can bring Sex Education to the mainstream. The book promotes self exploration of gender and sexuality studies. To increase its impact on people, the book can be stored in school and university libraries, Coffee shops and bookstores, public libraries etc. We hope that the book can help youngsters learn valuable knowledge about sexuality and life skills. With this new found knowledge we believe readers can overcome their anxiety, fear and shyness regarding Sex Education.

1. Comprehensive sex education can be covered in other media in tandem with the introductory book.
2. Such media can be animations, short films, course design for young children and social ethics for young adults.
3. Further books in the series can be created to cover other topics for various age groups. Social events and social media campaigns can accompany books.

Limitations

CLAP cannot reach all the people it wants to help without assistance from government, families and proactive individuals. CLAP will need a lot of funding and experienced individuals to help it develop a good Comprehensive Sex Education Program.

As a social enterprise it will take time for CLAP to reach its maximum potential and have a wide impact. It might need to compete with other for profit enterprises in this market and persuade people to give a try to sex education see if it is helpful to them and their loved ones.

The book does not cover all major topics under Comprehensive Sexuality Education. The book is written in Hindi and English but in its current form it is not accessible to people with visual and hearing disabilities. Further topics can be covered in other media or as a continuation of the book. Books in itself cannot communicate various aspects of sexuality education.

Conclusion

We would like to conclude by bringing your attention to the fact that our design interventions are small step towards improving and introducing sex education to the masses. We hope that in the coming years or decades similar proactive steps are take that will validate our vision of implementing sex education. In this design project we learnt a lot about designing brand identity and developing a book from ground up as well as learn a lot about sex and sexuality. It is our solemn effort to spread the knowledge we have gathered over the duration of the project.

Links to prototypes & Presentation

Debaditya Sekhar Jena on Behance

Sex Education Research Project on Behance

C.L.A.P. Brand Identity | Sex Education Project on Behance

The Better Side of You. | Sex Education Project on Behance

The Better Side of You. | Sex Education Project by Debaditya Sekhar Jena — issuu