I have so far been blogging about benign topics about India - traffic, climate, behavior, etc. Deep inside all of us who returned to India and those planning to return to India there lurks the topic that is talked only in whispers but never openly - Are Indian children as sexually active as the American/European kids are in their schools? How safe are the kids in our schools in India?
I tried to find this out from my kids' school teachers, tutors and other parents. The topic is a taboo. They avoid the topic or talk in hush - "Indian schools and school children are no longer innocent as your generation", "Indian school kids may not be too far from US school kids". One teacher went to the extent of saying that teen pregnancy is prevalent in Indian schools too.
Unlike American media, this topic is not openly discussed in magazines or Talk shows. There are articles about sexuality among adults (India Today had one issue on it which sounded so pathetically fake) but never about sexuality among children. Tehelka came up with a cover story on this topic in its recent issue. As I read through it I realized Indian schools are in the same state as any western developed countries' schools. We are finally on par with the developed nations in this matter.
Among the India diaspora there is a myth that if their kids misbehave they can always pack them back to India and bring up them up with traditional Indian values and that inspite of underdevelopment, India is a morally safe place to bring up the kids (I bet my wife had the same vision too when she agreed to move back to India 4 years back with our two boys).
This only tells that humans will be humans where ever they are. We have to learn to live with it. It doesn't mean that after reading this article you should change your India move plans. At least in India you will have hundred pairs of eyes watching your child while there will be none in US.
It reminds me of an incident in my life in India in 80s. I was 18 or 19 and I went to purchase a packet of cigarattes for my brother-in-law. By the time I returned home in 10 minutes, my parents already knew what I was purchasing.
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