Author: Ritika Singh, Sister Nivedita University
INTRODUCTION
The education is the most important and a funda
mental human right under right to education act, (RTE) talks about the right of children to free and compulsory education, also every individual has the right to access the education. Also, this topic includes the importance of sex education. Sex education plays a vital role, especially for the young people and this GENZ generation to know about their reproductive health, their bodies and the changes happens in men and women when they touch their puberty.
Sex education is the process of learning about the sexuality, emotional, physical, and social aspects, gender and sexually transmitted infection (STIs) which spread predominantly by unprotected sex. And, also about the consent of the partner, it also includes the information about the “abortion” which includes unwanted pregnancies and the “co-habitation” relationship, for the young people knowing about the merits and demerits of such thing make them understand the importance of their health, relationship, puberty and also protections like condoms, contraceptive pills.
Additionally, abortion is a sensitive process in medical as it terminates the process of pregnancy and it is attached with moral, legal, ethical. Cohabitation relationship is a part of it as young people lives together without marriage and sometimes have to face unwanted pregnancies.
TO THE POINT
Sex education is about teaching people to know their sexuality, health, bodies. The young people should get the knowledge about sex education to understand what changes happens in their bodies during puberty. Also give them knowledge about the unprotected sex, demerits of not using protection, misuse of contraceptive pills, unwanted and unplanned pregnancies, STI.
The adolescence (young people) usually between 10 to 19 years, children body changes rapidly and it’s a beginning of the puberty with biological changes in the bodies. The adolescence has few stages that is early, middle, and late. The early adolescence are from 10 to 13 years, middle adolescence are from 14 to 16 years, and the late adolescence are from 17 to 20 years.
Sex education is provided to the school children in some countries. They taught them about the consent, relationships, bodies. These things make young people take better decision about the sexual health and about the consent of the partner.
The misinformation about the sex education from the wrong platform leads to the misuse of contraceptive pills, unwanted pregnancies, addiction to pornography of young people
However, the importance of sex education is to provide the correct information about the contraceptive pills, STIs, condoms for men and female condoms for safe sex practices helps young people to reduce the ricks od unplanned pregnancies. Understanding the concept of partners consent, relationships value, emotion, can help an individual from being exploitation, toxicity and sexual abuse especially for females.
PROBLEMS FACED DUE TO LACK OF SEX EDUCATION
The problems that young people faces due to lack of sex education, knowledge the young people get from the wrong sources leads to misinformation about the sex and the reality. It misguides them and sometimes adults also.
Lack of guidance, parents do no guide their children about the physical good and bad touch to their kids especially for girl child. Few parents feel shame and unformattable about this topic, it’s a taboo for them, parents should talk about sex and make their children understand. Sex education mainly lack in the rural areas, people from rural areas are with large number of families were they are unable to understand these things, adults are only unaware about the sex education because there are few peoples who are illiterate, can’t afford expensive private schools or they never went to schools or schools are not available in their areas. This problem does not include the knowledge of sex education but also the basic education which they don’t get. Educational institutes also does not talk about this to the students of senior classes, or the junior classes to make them understand about the inappropriate touches.
However, In India talking about sex is a taboo. Not talking about sex does not give the perfect information to the young peoples, it leads to the to the rape crimes in India against women, because of the lack of sex education. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 86 cases of rape everyday or 3.5 every hour or 31,516 for 2022 rape cases has been registered. Crime against women has been raised rapidly in India, women are not safe anywhere and face violence in the bus, behind the close doors and also in their own home.
USE OF LEAGL JARGON
ARTICLE 21A- Right to free and compulsory education.
ARTICLE 21- Right to life and personal liberty
ARTICLE 21- Right to health
Good Touch & Bad Touch Education
Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO ACT, 2012)
MTP ACT- Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 (amended 2021)
UNDER BNS, 2023 , SECTION 63- Talks about RAPE , and outlines the punishment and specific cases
CONCEPT OF ABORTION
Abortion is a sensitive medical process of termination of pregnancy or loss of a fetus. It is a personal choice of an individual to terminate the pregnancy, also a deeply contentious issues and sometimes morally wrong. Abortion changes the body of the women and a painful process for the women. It is related to the right to education which includes sex education topic, it teaches the importance of protected sex and knowledge about the pregnancy and its importance to the young people, its there right to know and its important to give the sex education to the adults also. People who live in rural areas are unaware about the changes happens in the women bodies during pregnancy and abortion period.
CLASSIFICATION OF ABORTION
There are two types of classification
SPONTANEOUS – The spontaneous abortion also called (miscarriage) is unexpected ending of a pregnancy in the first 20 weeks of gestation. It has classified in two terms that is isolated and recurrent. The ‘isolated’ means the abortion is happening only one time. And the term ‘recurrent’ means doing the abortion habitually.
INDUCED – The induced method of abortion means terminating the pregnancy in medical termination of pregnancy (MTP). It is also of two types ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’. The MTP which is legalized method to terminate the pregnancy intentionally. MTP happens if it’s fulfil all the criteria under the act of MTP. Illegal pregnancy means ‘unsafe’ women or the families of the women don’t want to continue the pregnancy,
if medically they are unable to full fill the criteria of MTP then it will be not a legal process of doing abortion.
However, women need to know their right and the power to make such decision about their own body weather she wants or doesn’t want to continue the pregnancy. The unplanned pregnancy can impact the socio-economic that are problems related to abortion. Furthermore, sex education and the extant to which birth control should be used are also socio-economic problems such as condoms, contraceptive pills. In few cases the abortion gets in touches with co-habitation.
THE PROOF
Sex Education remains largely absent from Indian public schooling due to cultural resistance and lack of legal mandate, even though adolescent pregnancy and child sexual abuse are rising.
India faces a high rate of teenage pregnancies, sexual abuse,
and STDs due to lack of structured sex education.
According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), over 20% of girls aged 15–19 were either pregnant or already mothers.
The Adolescent Education Programme (AEP), initially launched by NCERT and NACO, faced backlash and was withdrawn in some states, demonstrating a gap in policy implementation despite the rising need.
2. Abortion Awareness:
The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2021 extended the gestational limit to 24 weeks for special categories of women, such as survivors of rape or incest.
Abortion, though legal under the MTP Act, 1971, is still shrouded in misinformation and social stigma due to lack of awareness and education.
However, a 2020 Guttmacher report estimated that nearly 8 out of 10 abortions in India are conducted outside of medical facilities, mainly due to lack of legal awareness or societal stigma.
Supreme Court in X v. Union of India (2022) clarified that unmarried women have the same abortion rights as married ones*, reinforcing the need for inclusive education.
3.Cohabitation:
Indian courts have affirmed the legal validity of live-in relationships, yet social backlash and moral policing continue due to absence of awareness at the grassroots level. Cohabitation is not illegal in India and has gained legal recognition through various judgments, yet societal stigma persists due to insufficient education on relationships and personal liberty.
The case of Indra Sarma v. V.K.V. Sarma (2013) laid down conditions under which live-in partners may claim protection under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
Legal education on cohabitation would reduce gender-based vulnerabilities, ensure legal protection, and normalize non-marital consensual relationships among adults.
ABSTRACT
The constitutional Right to Education must evolve to meet the needs of a modern, informed society. While legal education frameworks are expanding, the real test lies in integrating subjects like sex education, abortion rights, and cohabitation awareness. These are no longer just social issues; they are legal necessities grounded in constitutional guarantees of personal liberty, privacy, and bodily autonomy. This article examines how and why India must reform its educational framework to legally and meaningfully include these critical topics.
The Right to Education, enshrined under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution, is not limited to literacy or academics—it encompasses the broader concept of empowering individuals with life skills and awareness about personal rights. In this context, sex education, awareness of abortion rights, and understanding of cohabitation relationships become vital components of holistic education.
While sex education helps combat misinformation, reduce sexual violence, and promote bodily autonomy, abortion education ensures that women can make informed reproductive choices, a right protected under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971. Meanwhile, cohabitation, though legally permissible, is still socially stigmatized due to lack of legal awareness. This article argues that the constitutional right to life and dignity (Article 21) and right to health imply that individuals must be educated about these aspects to exercise autonomy, equality, and self-determination.
Co-habitation means living together with a partner without being married to each other. This co-habitation relations have been seen common nowadays. The young generations especially belief that co-habit can make their relation better with their partner, strong and healthy relation, get to know each other more better before marriage, and also financially understanding.
Nowadays living relationships are being accepted and also normal in some culture. Whereas living together before marriage are not acceptable in few cultural, families in India only few of them accept the living relationship of their children.
Cohabitation are very controversial in the society. In few cases people who are in living relation are unaware about the pregnancy seriousness or does not use the protection like condoms for male and also for female, taking pills regularly without knowing the demerits of it. Few women’s take pills regularly to avoid the unwanted pregnancy and leads to the reproductive health problems like infertility.
CASE LAWS
Sex Education
Avinash Mehrotra v. Union of India (2009) – Emphasized child safety in schools; indirectly supports sex education as part of safety awareness.
Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017)– Upheld the Right to Privacy, including informational privacy and sexual autonomy.
Abortion
X v. Union of India (2022) – The Supreme Court held that unmarried women are also entitled to safe abortion under the MTP Act, expanding rights irrespective of marital status.
Cohabitation
Indra Sarma v. V.K.V. Sarma (2013) – Supreme Court recognized live-in relationships under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
CONCLUSION
Having the access of proper information about the sex education, abortion, and cohabitation a human right. Knowledge about these things helps the society or an individual to understand their body and make proper decision by their own. Also sex education helps the young people to understand about the abortion and changes during and after abortion in women’s body, using protection and not taking pills, legal, safe and women’s consent in all of these make them good human being, understanding the relationship and laws for cohabitation will helps couples to take better decisions and will save women’s from toxic relation, unsafe sexual practices.
The intersection of education, bodily autonomy, and social freedom requires urgent legal and policy attention. The right to education must move beyond textbooks to address sexual health, abortion awareness, and evolving relationship models. The judiciary has made progressive strides, but implementation through public education, curriculum reform, and awareness campaigns is essential. Without empowering young citizens with this knowledge, constitutional rights remain hollow promises.
FAQS
Q1. Is sex education legally mandated in Indian schools?
No, there is no nationwide mandate, but states and CBSE may include it through Life Skills Education or Adolescent Education Program (AEP).
Q2. Is living in a co-habitation relationship is illegal in India?
No. It is not illegal, and courts have upheld it as a legal and valid relationship between consenting adults.
Q3. Why is sex education important from a legal point of view?
Sex education prevents child abuse, reduces teenage pregnancies, ensures awareness about legal rights like consent and privacy, and helps in building a responsible society.
