Laxmi is a class 11 student at Government Senior Secondary School, Marena, in the Dhaulpur district of Rajasthan. Her village is close to the Chambal river - the region's badlands and ravines once dreaded strongholds of dacoits and outlaws. Her own village, in the Raja Kheda block, often drowns due to excessive rainfall. Women hardly step out of their homes and interaction with men outside is always frowned upon.
But Laxmi seems to have found a new outlet for her many questions on gender discrimination, child marriage and adolescent health, thanks to a special new class in her school hostel. Every day in the evening after formal classes, her classmates gather around with their hostel warden to discuss and inquire about period hygiene, boys, marriage, contraception and reproductive health. "There was a lot of shame and coyness around these subjects. Now we will not think twice about complaining against boys who tease or harass us," says Laxmi. She proudly recounts one recent incident when she extricated a boy from under the wheels of a tractor after she heard screams for help, much to the opposition of her father. "We talk deeply and clearly about all our personal problems here. We also know that marriage and childbirth before 18 leads to several health complications," says Laxmi, recalling lessons from classes which city schools might mistake for "value education". Laxmi's friend Varsha's 17-year-old sister was married off during lockdown last year. But both Laxmi and Varsha know they want to study. They are learning to voice their opinions and needs in the last two years since they started attending these special classes under a programme called Udaan Tara which has a considerable focus on sex education to avert teenage pregnancies.
The unique adolescent health programme was launched in the Bari block of Dhaulpur district in Rajasthan in October 2018 as a pilot in 66 schools. In February 2021, it was scaled up to cover the entire Dhaulpur district, covering 587 government schools where more than 2,000 teachers have been trained to impart lessons on topics which might be considered taboo in communities of rural Rajasthan.
Introduced by the state government in collaboration with local NGO Manjari Foundation and international consulting group IPE Global, Udaan Tara is based on the components of Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakaram (National Adolescent Health Programme) which was launched by the Union ministry of health and family welfare in 2014. The content of Udaan Tara’s Teacher-Student Adolescent Health Dialogue has been organised into modules namely nutrition, reproductive health, mental health, prevention of non-communicable diseases, harmful impact of narcotics and prevention of gender-based violence.
But the classes on sex education are stirring vital conversations at a time when multiple incidents of child marriage continue to be reported from the state regularly. Recently, the state government recalled a piece of legislation (Rajasthan Compulsory Registration of Marriages (Amendment) Bill, 2021) which, activists decried, enabled child marriage. The bill had earlier stated that a marriage between a bridegroom below 21 years and a bride below 18 years could be registered by the parents (or guardians) within 30 days of the marriage. Even beyond the state-specific issue of indirectly dealing with underage marriages, sex education helps adolescents navigate the complications of sexuality and sexual relationships - it is missing from the National Education Policy 2020.
Even male teachers under the programme are learning to address sensitive questions around sex education and women's reproductive health in Dhaulpur government schools where students mostly belong to BPL, SC and ST backgrounds. Rajesh Kumar teaches classes 11 and 12 at the Government Senior Secondary School in Kanasil in the Saipau block of Dholpur. He's also trained under Udaan Tara and conducts these special classes alongside the coursework for 40 minutes every day. "In my classes, girls and boys sit together.
“In my 10 years of teaching, I have not seen training of this sort," says Kumar, who admits parents did not approve of the classes in the beginning. "For example, I once told the students they should always hang their undergarments in the sun to prevent germs. Many female students said they don't feel comfortable doing so in their houses. In the beginning, parents would tell me the women don't need to learn these things in school. Eventually they came around," says Kumar, whose lessons on women's personal hygiene require greater care. "I often ask for help from female teachers to get them across to the students," says Singh, who continued with these classes during lockdown by sending WhatsApp notes.
Sanjay Sharma has been associated with local NGOs in Dhaulpur like Manjari and Pradaan. He is not sure how much the programme has had an impact on preventing child marriages during lockdown but agrees that it is definitely helping change mindsets, mostly because of its specialised teaching and awareness-building methodology through the school curriculum. "The content part in Udaan is mindful of local languages. Activities, games and teaching methodology is very different. It entails shaking up gender equations. This won't reach even private schools that easily. Imagine it is happening in government schools. I am not sure even Delhi government schools are working on this," says Sharma. When a survey was done in the district some three years ago to check the average age of child marriage, it was 16.5. Sharma believes it may have improved by some decimal points, but a great deal of work remains to be done.
When Ajab Singh from the Government Senior Secondary school in Bari block attended these sessions in class 9, he learnt all about good touch, bad touch and consent. "We were taught we always have to ask for permission before touching any woman. They also told us to talk freely about any internal body changes that we may experience," says Singh, who mentions an "issue" boys his age often face and how it became less stressful after talking about it. "I had the problem of night fall (involuntary ejaculation). I thought this was a disease. When these classes started, my teacher told me that it is natural," says Singh, who wants to become a doctor.