Should people have sex before marriage?

Should people have sex before marriage?

It is a relevant topic in the modern day context. But I can take part in the debate only from an Indian cultural perspective. There is a saying ‘The East is always the East and the West is always the West and they can never meet’. This saying is very relevant from the cultural point of view and it hold good, when we consider the topic of premarital sex in the east as well as in the west.

A few months ago in Tamil Nadu, a popular Tamil Actress namely Khusboo in the course of an interview to a popular magazine had given her opinion on a question on premarital sex. According to her, the question of having premarital sex is the personal affair of a concerned person and added that those people who have premarital sex should be doubly careful and have adequate safety measures. Well, what she said was only her personal opinion and in any way she did not support or encourage premarital sex. But, once her interview was published in the magazine, it provoked a spontaneous outcry among the people especially among the women organizations and many others demanding her immediate arrest. Volley of petitions were filed in the criminal courts all over Tamil Nadu, demanding her immediate arrest and calling upon to punish her under the provisions of Indian Penal Code.

To such an extent people are steeped in culture and very particular in maintaining the virginity of a person prior to his or her marriage. The western culture of dating, preparing oneself for dating, wooing somebody for dating etc are unknown to the Indian culture especially the Tamil culture. We may be having some political leaders who have a number of wives, still clamoring for the purity and sanctity of the Tamil and as well as the Indian culture. But the majority of the people strongly believe in themselves and their cultural identity. Stray incidents of violation of their culture, do not affect them and they do not slacken their belief and stand that a person should remain a virgin before his or her marriage.

Some persons especially the youth, though they may not openly come out with the idea, are in favor of premarital sex. The result being a significant number of youngsters in the age group of say 18 to 21, have been afflicted with HIV+ and still a large number of them die due to AIDS. Having premarital sex mostly in an unsecured manner not only lead them to venereal diseases and ultimately into AIDS. What is a worrying and rather an unfortunate factor is that the youngsters who get contracted with venereal diseases feel rather shy and out of fear and being afraid of their parents, do not come forward to get a proper treatment for their diseases, creating further complications in their marital life, gifting away the disease to their spouses as well as their offspring. Thus we see that the people who indulge in premarital sex not only become victims of killer diseases and also spread it to the society, making many of them destitute and orphans.

Therefore, instead of embarking upon an adventurism what we call premarital sex with unknown partners, it is better to avoid them and wait until marriage to have sex. We all know life is only based on trial and error. Nothing wrong in being a novice in sex. There is always scope for learning anything including the sex. It is always better to know everything about sex after getting married, in the interest of your life as well the society, rather than becoming victims of killer diseases and lose your precious life.