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Editorial– CSE and Affirming Ecosystems

Not Delulu but Doable: The Ecosystem Giving us Hope for CSE in India

Interview – Dr. Sangeeta Saksena

What’s Wrong with the Menu at the Cosmetic Gynaecology Bodyshop?

Ms. Pleasant Gets Stubborn

Body Grammar in the Digital Age: Why Sport Matters Even More

Community Needs Care - an illustration with hands watering a flower

CSE’s ‘natural habitat’ is often considered to be the classroom, but as our contributors show us, CSE also lives, breathes and thrives in habitats as disparate as neighbourhood parks, jobs-training centres, playgrounds and sports fields, law schools, family discussions, and digital spaces.

By TARSHI

Editorial– CSE and Affirming Ecosystems

Not Delulu but Doable: The Ecosystem Giving us Hope for CSE in India

There are individuals, collectives and organisations that are doing their best to create an ecosystem that supports the education of children on gender, sexuality, health, consent, safety, relationships, self-esteem and confidence in themselves.

By Vani Viswanathan

Not Delulu but Doable: The Ecosystem Giving us Hope for CSE in India

CSE and Affirming Ecosystems Issue In Focus

Lived experience cannot be overlooked. It is the ultimate teacher.

By Shikha Aleya

Interview – Dr. Sangeeta Saksena

CSE and Affirming Ecosystems Interview

Young people make better choices when they understand consequences, boundaries and respect – not when they are kept in the dark.

By Shikha Aleya

Interview – Anindita Kargupta

CSE and Affirming Ecosystems Interview

What’s Wrong with the Menu at the Cosmetic Gynaecology Bodyshop?

a hand holding a bouqet of purple, pink tulips along with makeup and cosmetic products

Medicine does not exist in a vacuum. … a doctor’s words can reinforce oppressive beauty myths or dismantle them.

By Suchitra Dalvie

What’s Wrong with the Menu at the Cosmetic Gynaecology Bodyshop?

CSE and Affirming Ecosystems Voices

When Rights Aren’t Enough: Exploring Sexuality Education in India’s National Law Universities

Without explicit attention to desire, intimacy, and emotional negotiation, legal concepts remain abstract rather than practicable.

By Prerna

When Rights Aren’t Enough: Exploring Sexuality Education in India’s National Law Universities

CSE and Affirming Ecosystems The I Column

Illustration of three people carrying a ladder

… spaces led by the desire to not just protect but also educate all who connect with children…

By Reema Ahmad

Ms. Pleasant Gets Stubborn

CSE and Affirming Ecosystems Voices

Body Grammar in the Digital Age: Why Sport Matters Even More

Children in sports develop an internal lens of how the body feels, an intimate understanding of their physical self and an ownership of their bodies.

By Amita Malhotra Lalwani

Body Grammar in the Digital Age: Why Sport Matters Even More

CSE and Affirming Ecosystems Voices

CSE survives in information as well as in the values that carry it forward.

By Khushi Kaushal

My CSE Sundays

CSE and Affirming Ecosystems The I Column

सहभागी डिजिटल संस्कृति और व्यापक यौनिकता शिक्षा – भारत का बदलता शैक्षिक परिदृश्य

silver laptop computer beside white ruled paper

डिजिटल मीडिया ने भारत में CSE को नई दिशा दी है। इंस्टाग्राम रील्स, यूट्यूब चैनल और आधुनिक कहानी-आधारित सामग्री ने न केवल जानकारी का लोकतंत्रीकरण किया है बल्कि युवाओं में आत्मविश्वास, समझ और संवेदनशीलता भी बढ़ाई है।

By Imran Khan

सहभागी डिजिटल संस्कृति और व्यापक यौनिकता शिक्षा – भारत का बदलता शैक्षिक परिदृश्य

CSE and Affirming Ecosystems हिन्दी

In Plainspeak publishes one issue every month, with a single theme running across two months. Our aim is to expand safe, inclusive self-affirming spaces.

CURRENT ISSUE:

December 2025: CSE and Affirming Ecosystems

Peers, parents, teachers, creators, social influencers, and many others, have been delivering information and modeling assertiveness and relationship skills around sexuality, to young (and not so young) people. Many are using creative and innovative ideas and methods to convey accurate and relevant messages to engage with diverse audiences. We have often overlooked these resourceful and ingenious ways in which Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) is communicated. Be they ideas shared within a family, workshops held in a school, an awareness campaign in a community, a policy at a town, state or country level, a TV series aired nationally, these are what go on to create micro and macro CSE ecosystems that are affirming and inclusive. For learning to last and be converted into practice, a one-off exposure to a lecture, book, or Instagram post is not enough. It is an affirming ecosystem that sustains learning and living. This issue of In Plainspeak focuses on what people are doing and how, to create and sustain affirming CSE ecosystems.

व्यापक यौनिकता की शिक्षा और सकारात्मक पारिस्थितिकी तंत्र (इकोसिस्टम)

समकक्ष लोग, अभिभावकों, शिक्षक, रचनाकार, सामाजिक प्रभावक (इन्फ्लुएंज़ेर) और कई अन्य लोग, युवा (और कम युवा) लोगों को यौनिकता के बारे में जानकारी प्रदान कर रहे हैं तथा दृढ़ता और संबंध कौशल को समझने व अपनाने में मदद कर रहे हैं। कई लोग विविध दर्शकों तक सटीक और प्रासंगिक संदेश पहुंचाने के लिए रचनात्मक और नए विचारों और तरीकों का इस्तेमाल कर रहे हैं। हम अक्सर उन संसाधनपूर्ण और सरल तरीकों को नज़रअंदाज़ कर देते हैं जिनके ज़रिये व्यापक यौनिकता की शिक्षा (CSE) का संचार किया जाता है। चाहे वे परिवार में साझा किए गए विचार हों, स्कूल में आयोजित कार्यशालाएं हों, समुदाय में जागरूकता अभियान हो, शहर, राज्य या देशीय स्तर पर कोई नीति हो, राष्ट्रीय स्तर पर प्रसारित कोई टीवी श्रृंखला हो। यह वे चीजें हैं जो सूक्ष्म और वृहद CSE इकोसिस्टम का निर्माण करती हैं जो सकारात्मक और समावेशी हैं। किसी चीज़ को सीखने में और सीख कर उस पर अभ्यास करने के लिए , किसी व्याख्यान, किताब या इंस्टाग्राम पोस्ट का एक बार पढ़ना काफ़ी नहीं है।यह एक सकारात्मक पारिस्थितिकी तंत्र है जो सीखने और ज़िंदगी जीने को क़ायम रखता है। इन प्लेनस्पीक का यह अंक इस बात पर केंद्रित है कि लोग क्या और कैसे सकारात्मक CSE पारिस्थितिकी तंत्रों का निर्माण कर रहे हैं। साथ-ही-साथ, कैसे इस पारिस्थितिकी तंत्र को निरंतर जीवित रख सकते हैं, यह अंक इस पर भी केंद्रित है।

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Each time a child or adolescent asks a question that may be (even indirectly) related to sexuality, many parents and teachers get squirmy and nervous. This may be because they themselves do not have the information required, but in most cases, it has more to do with the ‘hush-hush’ that surrounds sexuality.

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So much power and so much reach in the case of entertainment can be used as a force for good or for its opposite.

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Digital entanglements transcend bodies, time, geographical borders and boundaries, influencing – and perhaps fundamentally changing – the ways in which we understand, explore and express our sexuality.

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In Plainspeak

CSE AND AFFIRMING ECOSYSTEMS

Older Issues

2025

2024

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