Hello, My name is Rishi Talwar and I am a trained psychologist, with a Master of Arts degree in clinical psychology. I am the co-founder of The Torchbearers Foundation, a charitable organisation with an aim to work towards addressing this public health crisis by working towards a prevention and response apparatus within India.

The United Nations defines Sexual and Gender Based Violence as:  

“Sexual violence is a form of gender-based violence and encompasses any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting. 

Sexual violence takes multiple forms and includes rape, sexual abuse, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization, forced abortion, forced prostitution, trafficking, sexual enslavement, forced circumcision, castration and forced nudity. 

Gender-based violence is considered to be any harmful act directed against individuals or groups of individuals on the basis of their gender. It may include sexual violence, domestic violence, trafficking, forced/early marriage and harmful traditional practices. 

An understanding of how gender intersects, for instance, with race, religion, economic situation, political affiliation and geography is also critical to addressing patterns and forms of gender-based violence. Although men and boys are also targets of gender-based and sexual violence in conflict situations, the victims of such violence continue to be disproportionally women and girls.”

I am mindful of your time being valuable and I have therefore summarised this petition for a quick review at the beginning. Please feel free to read the entirety of the petition if you are interested and able to, while considering the possibility of adding your name to this appeal by signing the petition if my postulations resonate with you. 

I am also adding links for further reading and references at the end for those who may want to read more about this issue.

I am grateful for your time and energy.

Summary

In India, sex education barely exists. If it does, it is often either restricted to abstinence-based education: promoting abstinence until marriage, or fear based education: which centres around the dangers of sex like unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infection’s and disease’s. 

Seldom is sex portrayed as a healthy, pleasurable activity which may be free from shame and guilt. It is imperative that children, adolescents as well as adults have access to credible and scientifically accurate information when they need it in order to develop healthy attitudes and beliefs about themselves and others while also learning how to safeguard themselves. The idea that consenting adults have the autonomy to make these decisions for themselves based on their personal values and choices needs to be reinforced and normalised.

The lack of safe spaces to talk about these subjects in a healthy, ethical and informed way causes distress and confusion. It abandons people to deal with their thoughts and feelings without any credible support further perpetuating myths and misconceptions. In my professional opinion this is leading to a public health crisis which is being witnessed in the form of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV):

• “According to the recently released National Crime Records Bureau of India’s data, 32,608 cases were reported in 2017 while 39,827 cases were reported in 2018 under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act” - NDTV
• “India sexual abuse: 'Four child victims every hour'” - BBC
• “109 children sexually abused every day in India in 2018: National Crime Records Bureau” - India Today
• ‘According to government data, nearly four women are raped every hour in India. Realistically speaking, that means only about 90 women each day find the courage to report that they have been sexually violated.’ - Economic Times
• 6 yr old allegedly raped and murdered by 12 yr old - TOI

These statistics and stories are a few examples to highlight the severity of this issue and only include official figures as reported by credible sources. A story by the mint highlights that according to data by the GOI, 99% cases of sexual assaults go unreported - live mint. 

It is also important to keep in mind that there is no legal provision in India for people identifying as male to report sexual abuse and violence if they are subjected to it. There is also a considerable amount of stigma for male identified people to report the same, owing to the patriarchal mindset that makes it extremely difficult for “men” to express vulnerability.

A potential solution in my view lies in increasing awareness around this complex issue and Comprehensive Sexuality Education is a tool to help achieve this goal. 

Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) is a curriculum developed by the United States Government in 1991 and has been updated and manualised by institutions like the UN over time. It is aimed at equipping people with credible, reliable and scientifically accurate information about sexuality. The material is developmentally structured, providing age-appropriate information, it includes but is not limited the basics of anatomy and biology and attempts to address issues such as:

• How to build healthy relationships
• How to ask for and give consent
• How to set and communicate physical, emotional and sexual boundaries 
• How to say no when one is uncomfortable with certain activities or situations
• How to be safe when exploring oneself and one's own sexuality

Keeping in mind all the points raised in this petition, I ask for your support in amplifying my voice by signing this petition which will be shared with relevant stakeholders including the Government of India, management of educational institutions, parents, teachers and individuals to raise awareness and catalyse change in order to push for relevant policy reforms facilitating the delivery of CSE to the public at large.

This petition aims at:

• Preventing SGBV by utilising education as a tool to raise awareness
• Implementing CSE as a course/program across educational institutions Pan-India through relevant policy changes mandating the implementation of this program
• Having adequately trained and dedicated individuals deliver the CSE modules who can serve as both a safe and credible source of information as well as a support system who can guide and refer individuals to relevant professionals when required
• Demanding educational institutions to take responsibility and ensure that they are doing their best to support their students. This will involve re-evaluating their own attitudes and beliefs by studying the course material themselves while actively engaging with their own belief systems.
• Guiding parents into taking a proactive approach to the needs of their growing children by providing a safe space for them to talk about their own sexuality and equipping them with the skills and knowledge to facilitate the same for their children

Detailed petition:

Before we proceed further it is important to clarify and define Sexuality. 

According to the Australian Government:

“Sexuality is not about who you have sex with, or how often you have it. Sexuality is about your sexual feelings, thoughts, attractions and behaviours towards other people. You can find other people physically, sexually or emotionally attractive, and all those things are a part of your sexuality. Sexuality is diverse and personal, and it is an important part of who you are. Discovering your sexuality can be a very liberating, exciting and a positive experience.“

It is vital that we address the elephant in the room while acknowledging our cultural and social context, the benefits as well as the potential harm. As long as we keep brushing uncomfortable subjects under the proverbial rug. Nothing will change.

We are witnessing the result of decades of suppression and shame, treating sex as if it is a mortal sin and that these are western issues that are not valid in our culture and society. We are wrong. We are the second most populous country in the world and have reached this landmark by engaging in sex.

In an attempt to “fix” the problem we have introduced the death penalty for sexual assault and rape. While the death penalty may give us a sense of satisfaction and/or a sense of justice being served, it does little else to address sexual and gender based violence and in fact may actually deter survivors from reporting abuse. - BBC

Part of the answer, in my professional opinion, is in raising awareness and sensitising the population, in opening up safe spaces to talk about our natural feelings of sex and desire, in talking about the ideas of “masculinity” and “femininity” and in understanding gender identity and sexual orientation for what they truly are; a natural part of our human experience.

‘But, wouldnt teaching and talking about sex with children corrupt their innocence? They will find out about it as the rest of us have, as they grow up and learn about these things themselves.’ This is an example of the prevalent attitudes around this taboo subject and they are causing very real harm to our children and to our society at large.

I will elaborate my point by sharing personal examples, I learnt about sex from two sources when I was a minor:

1. The internet, largely by accessing pornographic content online as have most of us and 
2. A driver employed by my family who would drive me to and from school. 

I would share whatever “knowledge” and information I gained with my peers as we compared stories and all sorts of “facts” with each other. 

Firstly, even ethical pornography is rarely a credible and reliable source of information further propagating myths and misconceptions e.g. a “man” should be able to last for hours engaging with multiple partners, a “woman” is meant to please the “man” and must be subservient, prioritizing his pleasure over her own. Such notions may impact one’s sense of self esteem, self image and may actually promote abuse and violence and potentially lead to long term mental health struggles.

Secondly, it placed me in a potentially harmful and vulnerable situation because I did not know who I could turn to for judgement-free guidance when I needed it. While the driver employed by my family was a decent human being and never crossed any boundaries which made me uncomfortable. I was a curious young child, like any other, wanting to know more about this elusive topic shrouded in secrecy and shame, the potential for harm was HUGE! 

If you are still unsure about the relevance and importance of implementing such a program on a wide scale, ask yourself these questions:

• When did you start thinking about sex and sexuality?
• Did you feel comfortable raising these thoughts and questions with a trusted adult?
• If you were able to raise these questions with a trusted adult, what was their response?
• What were your sources of information? Were they credible and reliable?

As a mental health professional, I have spent a lot of time working with people who have faced sexual abuse and violence. It is difficult to do this kind of work without contemplating the society in which we live and what could be potential steps towards making things better.   

What we are facing in this regard is a pandemic. The ideals of heteronormativity and patriarchy dictate gender roles and norms promoting myths and misconceptions that are literally taking countless lives either by suicide or by violence.

It is time to start making a change. It is time to start looking at uncomfortable truths. Please sign this petition and share it with others in an attempt to galvanize this process.

Torchbearers Foundation is a not for profit organization and we will be relying on raising funds to help achieve our goals. We are actively working on prevention as well as response mechanisms. Please feel free to check out our website and reach out to us in case you would like to help us achieve this shared vision for a more equitable and just future by making a donation or if you are looking to collaborate with us in any other way:

https://www.adirolabs.com/torchbearers-foundation-our-impact-aasha

(P.S. - Torchbearers Foundation is not raising funds through this petition)

Further reading and references:

• A paper titled 'Adolescent sex education in India: Current perspectives', Published in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry (2015) 
• A Study on child abuse in India published by the Ministry of women and child development, Government of India (2007)
• A paper titled 'Sex Education In India: Why, What, When, Where, Whom?' published by The Indian Institute of Sexology, Bhubaneswar (2017)
• A paper titled ‘Challenges to implementing national comprehensive sexuality education curricula in low- and middle-income countries: Case studies of Ghana, Kenya, Peru and Guatemala' Published in the Journal PLOS ONE (2018)
• A paper titled 'Lessons learned from a decade implementing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in resource poor settings: The World Starts With Me' (2015)
• The Center for Sex Education: The history of Sex Education (2015)
• UNESCO: Why comprehensive sexuality education is important (2018)