Key-words: Sex Education, Puberty, Socio-Emotional Education, Adolescence, School System

In this project, we have explored a narrow region in the wide domain of sexual health and social reform in India through the lens of education at the school level. Coining our goal ‘Social and Intimate Maturity’, we worked towards building an intervening structure in the current system of reproductive and social health education.

We conducted both primary and secondary research on the topic. We found and studied government guidelines, and collected people's experiences through a survey, and used this data along with our chosen design process and interviews with professionals in the field (sex education facilitators at the Akanksha Foundation and Prayas Group) to come up with our proposed solution.

Our intervention is a monthly magazine + facilitator service, delivered via a partnership between the school system and our proposed NGO. We would work with students from grade 6-8 in monthly sessions, each dealing with any one particular topic, like consent, bodily changes, relationships, etc. One of the things we identified was that hearing someone's experiences, realising that other people have gone through the same thing and that it is normal, helps both adults and children a lot. So, our magazine would mostly be comics and illustrated stories of people's experiences, collected from parents and older students. It would also have Q&A sections, conversation starters for parents, and some inputs from teachers.

With this, we hope to create a culture of discussion and nurturing within the school system and at the homes of students, in order to help them blossom into responsible, kind, empathetic adults.

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