Sexual and reproductive health education attitudes and experience in India: how much support is there for comprehensive sex education? Findings from an Internet survey

ABSTRACT

This study assessed the extent to which an Internet-recruited sample of residents of India was supportive of the provision of comprehensive sexual education in school in a country where youth sexual health is poor. We sought to determine whether attitudes differed for those of varying demographic backgrounds (age, sex, education level, religion), the extent of support for comprehensive coverage, the school or age levels deemed appropriate for delivery, and whether own sex education history influenced support. We conducted an anonymous online survey with 1140 Indian adults using crowdsourcing methods. We found widespread support for the provision of sex education to youth in India among members of our largely well educated, middle-class sample. However, most participants believed sex education should be provided relatively late (i.e., in mid- to late-adolescence). Few opposed sex education altogether and attitudes were not predicted by background, own school-based sex education, or parent-child communication about sex. Less than one-third of participants endorsed the coverage of all topics, indicating that support for truly comprehensive coverage was not strong. However, the findings counter politicised efforts to ban sex education by state leaders despite the availability of a progressive, comprehensive curriculum offered by the Central government.

KEYWORDS:

• India
• attitudes
• comprehensive sex education
• online survey

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the help of Mary Byers with data collection and feedback on the measures. We also thank Kranti Rayamane of the Aga Khan Health Services for feedback on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.