| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| When sex gets out of the cupboard |
| 2004-12-08 |
| It is an episode that has stirred the roots of Indian society: two senior students of a prestigious private school in Delhi indulged in an intimate sexual act in the chemistry laboratory. In the age of adolescent sex and uninterrupted Internet access, this should not be unnatural or untoward, even in a predominantly conservative society such as India, except for one detail. Earlier, such sexual encounters - whether it be school sex or children exposed to pornography on the Internet, in magazines or videos - formed part of informed discussions and intellectual debate on how best to tackle the issue. This time there is a difference. The boy happened to possess a camera cell phone, and without the knowledge of the girl, recorded the proceedings, passed them on to a few friends to show off his exploits, who in turn forwarded them to a few more, forming an endless chain, with the said two-and-a-half-minute clip now being sold on the Internet and becoming the hottest-selling compact disc (CD) at Delhi's Palika Bazaar, where all such stuff is sold. It is certainly not the first time that teenagers have indulged in sex, but the fact that everybody can see it happening has, as would be expected, created a different impact. The reactions that have engulfed almost everybody who can be heard have been to blame somebody. The boy and girl in question have been suspended from school, so have been the boy's friends who received the clip. Others have blamed the school administration for allowing students to carry cellular phones, and those too with a camera. Parents who indulge their wards by buying cell phones for them too are the culprits. The government, which has been lax in coaxing schools to keep students in check, has been blamed. Most important, it is the use and abuse of technology that progresses at a rapid pace, opening young minds to detrimental effects, that have come under the glare... |
| Posted by:tipper |