Sign for a sex clinic in Mumbai, India. (CreativeCommons License)

With vice, swanky kids, media attention and court room suspense, the story had all the makings of good drama, and the country followed it closely for months. But, more than anything else, the story underscored a reality many Indians didn’t want to face. The girl involved, after all, had nonchalantly asked her principal, “Who doesn’t do it? Haven’t you done it?”

India did not know how to answer, and the question seemed to challenge long-held traditional beliefs about sex and its place in society. But regardless of people’s personal beliefs about sex, the couple’s video made clear that, in India today, thoughts are changing. Liberalized and globalized, younger generations are tending towards a more open, casual attitude about sex, with this nowhere truer than in India’s fast-paced, growing cities. Young urbanites are more promiscuous than ever before.

But having sex is different from knowing about sex, and this is the crisis in which the Indian youth currently finds itself. Most teenagers lack basic knowledge about STDs, protection and contraception, and increasing numbers of teen pregnancy cases are reported each year. According to a 2006 Indian Health Bureau report, 78 percent of Indians below the age of 20 do not know about safe sex. Compare this to the estimate by the same report that 54 percent are sexually active, and the implications are clear: a lot of teenagers are having sex without knowing what they should about it.

This has evoked great public criticism of the central government’s policies—or lack thereof—regarding sex education. The more liberal elements of Indian society, such as NGOs and the media, blame inadequate sex education in state-sponsored curricula and health policies. The more conservative and more populous elements deny the need for such education at all. They contend that this sort of education would be interpreted as an implicit license to be sexually active, a repugnant idea to some of the most fundamental elements of Indian society.

The debate has left schools a battleground in the politics of sex. At issue isn’t just inadequate education, but Indian society’s refusal to acknowledge that teenagers are sexually active at all. Public health interests demand that the government do something, but many of the older generation, especially parents, are still reluctant to admit what a cell phone video made clear: Indian teenagers are having sex.

Changing Values: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

India today is in the midst of a rapid metamorphosis that envelops every aspect of the nation’s identity. The much-discussed epicenter is India’s rapid economic growth. Not too long ago, India was regarded as an exotic land of snake-charmers, spices, overpopulation and religious strife. Now it is touted to become a future world leader and an example for other developing countries.

Yet these economic changes have spurred difficult cultural changes for India, the human element of which has gone largely unnoticed. As Yale Professor Geetanjali Chanda explained: “The influx of foreign companies in the country brings more than just employment opportunities and economic benefits to the country. They bring with them a certain attitude and a mindset that promotes liberalism and, among other things, openness about sexuality.” But these foreign values regarding sexual liberalism have not spread through Indian society evenly, and cultural divisions have developed along geographical and generational lines. India’s traditional norms have been most displaced by foreign values in the urban centers and among the youth.

One example is Prerna Kotwal, a 25-year-old businesswoman currently working at the Mumbai office of Merryl Lynch. Well-dressed in a crisp business suit, her hair highlighted in shades of caramel and her makeup immaculate, she looks like the quintessential working urban woman. Prerna, however, was not always so comfortable in the city. “Coming from a small town in central India, I was in for a huge culture shock when I first moved to Mumbai after doing my MBA.”

Prerna is a new person now, with new views on sex. “I view sex very differently than I did in my teenage years. I do not think there is anything wrong with being sexually active before marriage. After all it is a biological function—and a very fulfilling one at that,” she said matter-of-factly, completely at ease discussing her views on sexuality.

People in the cities are getting increasingly more curious about sex-related issues and, more importantly, they are willing to talk about their experiences and seek out the information they want. As Professor Chanda remarked, “From cooking the perfect daal”—a traditional Indian dish—“to pleasing your husband, magazines such as Femina have dramatically changed the issues being talked about, and clearly indicates a change in women’s attitudes towards sex.” She considers the Indian version of Cosmopolitan to be a striking example. “The topics discussed in it are extremely bold and honest about sexual relations, experimentation and orientation.”

While sex is becoming less of a taboo subject in cities like Mumbai and Delhi, India’s strong traditionalist culture has not yet vanished. Even among the younger generation, Prerna’s views are not always shared. Divya Singh, a 19-year-old student at St. Xavier’s College, also located in Mumbai, was born and brought up in the city. Her parents do not mind her dating and most of her friends are sexually active. Yet Divya strongly believes in abstinence, as traditional Indian values dictate. As she told the Globalist: “We are, after all, Indian and sex for us should not be as casual as it is in the Western world. While I agree that it is each individual’s decision, sex is a very intimate and sacred act in India. There is something to be said about saving yourself for marriage and I have respect for girls who do that, especially today.”