Sex Ed
Systematic Behavioural study of Taboo in society
This Project is in collaboration with the students of Design Academy Eindhoven. A group of students at Design Academy did research in the Netherlands, in which they followed the path of contraceptive pill and looked at the Distribution, Consumption and Disposal. Stigma
We wanted to know the stigma around the use of Contraception. And tried to find answers to questions like usage of any kind Contraception, the talk about it, buying and storing them.
Communication
There has always been a communication gap. Most of the times it is the question of what to reply in the situations when such questions are raised.
Sterilisation
Female sterilisation seems to be the most common contraception method in rural India. We wanted to know why and how this was so.
Sex Education
Sex Education in India in government or private schools is very basic. The books just cover the basic knowledge which is on surface level.
EXPERIMENT
To see what sort of contraceptives are available and given to consumers without prescription and check the practices, we went to 3 medical shops and asked for contraceptive pills.
1. The first shop owner gave an Emergency Contraceptive Pill and had no knowledge about the Birth Control Pills.
2. The second pharmacy also gave us the same, ECP and not Birth Control Pill.
3. And the third store refused to give an ECP and said to look for another store across the street which was a hospital pharmacy. Whereas the Hospital did not stock for any BCP or ECP. But from the first medical store we visited, we bought a pack of condom which is an accessible contraceptive available in India
We saw a documentary on ASHA worker and her duty on field in rural India.
A broad idea of the rural health plan and movements came forth. We tried to find out more information by doing secondary research and contacting the Municipal Hospitals and Asha workers.
Asha Workers - Accredited Social Health Activist
(ASHA) is a community in India that serves as health worker institute by the government of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as a part of the National Rural Health Mission.
ASHAs are local women trained to act as health educators and promoters in their communities to create awareness on health and its social determinants. Also to mobilise the community towards local health planning and increased utilisation and accountability of the existing health services.
Their tasks include motivating women to give birth in hospitals, encouraging family planning, treating basic illness and injury with first aid, keeping demographic records, and improving village sanitation.
She will act as a depot holder for essential provisions being made available to all habitations like Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORS), Iron Folic Acid Tablet(IFA),chloroquine, Disposable Delivery Kits (DDK), Oral Pills & Condoms,
HUM DO!
The Government of India has started campaigns and organisation that works for Family Planning in India.
India became the first country in the world to initiate the family planning program in 1952. The government started the scheme of Hum Do!
Since October 1997, the services and interventions addressing aspects such as client choice, service quality, gender issues and underserved groups, including adolescents were initiated.
The government site also has the information on contraceptive methods and what pills to take.
Insights from the interviews we took that questioned around the system of contraception and the taboo around it.
CBSC SCHOOL BIOLOGY TEXTBOOKS
We found central school books on the internet and went
through the books and chapters in Biology textbook.
6th - chapter Living Organism
7th- chapter Reproduction in Plants
8th - chapter Reproduction in Animals
9th- chapter Why do we fall ill?
We checked the chapters and looked at the content of these textbooks.
The content in these books is on surface level and basic.
INSIGHTS
After all the primary and secondary research, interviews and lots of insights to look at, we synthesised our information and tried to map out the gap.
Both the systems of contraception in India and The Netherlands, have different social structures with different human behaviour and beliefs.
What we found out was the system in India has different concepts and beliefs with human body and hormones. Also that the school education lacked in giving students the basic knowledge.
The communication was the root cause of this problem, results in adults getting confused and had no idea of How to deal with the curious young minds questions. Apart from this, talking about women body or health is still considered to be taboo in society and basic hormonal changes were not addressed openly like periods.
To overcome this taboo we came up with a new way that solves these issues of :
• Adults do not know what to say when they are questioned by their kids.
• Children relying on internet as a source of knowledge.
• Education system lacking an introduction to sex education and health.
• So we thought of making a Sex Education cards game where they play the game and learn more under a supervisor who should be qualified enough to answer any further doubts.
• We thought of a game where they talk openly and the taboo is slowly removed.
We suggested a game that can be played in schools by 8th grade students (14 years old). This game would facilitate the young kids to talk about the topics and gain information through a reliable source. This will help in a way that they stop relying on the false or fake information, they get over internet.
Also this game should be played under a guidance of a supervisor, who is experienced in answering these questions and have a basic knowledge in this field.
Profile of adult supervisor:
The person should have previous knowledge of sex education.
They should go through the game’s rules and regulations beforehand and know how the game works and what all information is there.
They should not be unbiased and should be non judgemental.
They should never impose their thoughts and opinions.
They should know the facts and should correct the children with an explanation.
They should try to break the hierarchy of teacher and student and make them comfortable.
They should only interfere when needed.
Take feedback and implement.
Instructions:
There are 4 Categories :
Myths / Facts (Red Card), Social Taboos (Yellow), Define (Blue) and Info (Green).
Each group of card will be having 20 cards.
Dice:
Rolling the Dice, the player needs to pick the card of the respective colour that comes on the top face of the dice.
Players:
The game can be played with 10 players.
It is for the education purpose and is for 14+ age group.
Prototyping of Cards
Concept Render