JOIN US'Sex without love not worth the trouble'
The study finds that a large proportion of Indian population still find their “sex education” rather deficient despite no dearth of sexual information in a post-modern society.
And where is “sex education” found wanting the most for the Indian adult?
“It is the emotional aspect, which may include love, respect and the shared enjoyment of giving pleasure to one’s partner, that the highest proportion of Indian population (41 per cent) think their formal sex education has missed out the most,” says the latest findings from the “Durex Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey”.
Information helps
The key findings of the survey, fourth in a series of reports prepared by the “Durex Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey” commissioned by Durex, was released in Chennai on Monday. Interestingly, for 82 per cent of Indian men and women, “sufficiency” of sexual information to help “enjoy their sex lives to the full” is not a problem. Indeed they “are satisfied with their sexual well-being,” with the information they have access to, it says.
However, only 52 per cent of Indians believe that there is enough well-meant “advice” going around to reach that level of sexual satisfaction.
Subtle distinction
Thus, worldover including in India people seem to be making a subtle distinction between description (sexual information) and prescription (advice on sex matters) to achieve higher levels of sexual well-being.
For Indian adults, the largest source of sexual knowledge is strangely not Vaatsayana’s “Kama Sutra”, over which the West has gone gaga about. For 59 per cent of the former, it is their “friends” who are their main source of “sexual knowledge”, followed by magazines (58 per cent)”.
Nonetheless, 56 per cent of the respondents said they now turn to the internet for the sexual information. Among adults, who have had a formal sex education, this propensity to go on line for anything to do with sex is a little more at 60 per cent, says the survey.
The impact of school sex education as a “major source” of sexual knowledge is very minimal with only 43 per cent of the respondents saying there were exposed to it while they were in school.
Tips from parents
Guidance given by parents is even dismally lower at 18 per cent. Among those who received formal sex education, 58 per cent of the respondents said the areas of knowledge covered mainly “pregnancy”, while 54 per cent learnt about the fallout of HIV/AIDS.
Only 36 per cent said they were taught anything about the “emotional aspects of sex.”
Significantly, the survey found that the call for more emotional focus in sex education came from Indian women in particular (48 per cent). Indian men, too, did not lag behind in this call for more emotional focus or holistic approach with 42 per cent across all age-groups, demanding it.