‘Sex education must not be a taboo talk’

Guidance and awareness is what the students want from their parents this Women's Day.

Students from Delhi University, who gathered at the office of the All India Women's Conference (AIWC) round table conference on Monday, said that parents should be more open to discussions on sexuality and ethics with children so that they grow up to be more responsible adults.

They also said that the prudish attitude of the general public needs to change so that women become safer.

"I had written an article on making sex education compulsory in school for a newspaper. A day after it got published, I started getting threatening calls. My parents, who were not very happy with my ideas since the beginning, made me stop writing anything about sex after the incident. This attitude needs to change if we want to think about women's safety seriously," said a DU student.

College professors, representatives from corporate houses, psychologists, lawyers and members of the AIWC were also present at the conference.

"We need to get rid of the mindset that unknown men on the road are the ones that endanger the safety of a woman. The perpetrators are usually known to the victim. We should also understand that class has nothing to do with crime against women," said Sangita Singh, a psychologist with an organisation Tarini.

According to the Supreme Court lawyer Chandramani Chopra, organisations should be involved in the process of amendment of laws.

"The laws are archaic and when the amendments take place, we need to have more women's organisations involved so that the laws are favourable. Also stricter implementation of laws is needed," she said.