Sahinaz Khatun, who is preparing for her school finals in a village in West Bengal state, has for the last two years kept condoms (and birth control pills) at her home and thinks nothing of discussing subjects like menstruation hygiene and masturbation with other adolescents.
Khatun is among the 200 young people attending the 4th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (APCRSH) demanding the right to sex education.
"Talking about sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is not going to make us errant or licentious," she said, adding that there are people in her community who still feel this is not the right thing for a young unmarried woman to be doing.
"In some ways they are right," she says. "But then schools and parents have absolved their responsibility."
She spoke vociferously against the ban on sex education recently imposed by 12 Indian state governments in their schools.
clipped from: www.ipsnews.net