Since 2015, Kerala’s students have been learning that HIV spreads through premarital and extramarital sex. In a chapter about the prevention of diseases, a tenth-grade biology textbook claimed that HIV spreads through premarital and extramarital sex. Not unsafe sexual intercourse per se, but rather sexual behaviour that most of our society regards as morally objectionable. Within one small pink bubble, the State Council of Educational Research and Training – Kerala (SCERT) masterfully exacerbated the stigma attached to not only promiscuity but also an individual’s HIV status by (unscientifically) correlating the two.

We don’t know what is more alarming. The fact that a textbook developing team comprising of 14 individuals, 7 experts, 7 contributors to the English version of the textbook and 1 academic coordinator made this book, or that it had been in circulation since the academic year 2015-16 without this factoid being brought to the notice of the present team.

While it is unfortunate that this mistake was made at all in the first place, it is far more disheartening that for several years none of the teachers who referred to this book cared to criticize this grave error and get it corrected for the benefit of their students.

In addition to this ignorance, as reflected by the teachers across the years, the fact that the students from grade 10 did not realize the unscientific claim is equally worrying.

This could be either because of their lack of knowledge of the disease, which is the fault of our hilarious education system that continues to deny sex education its much-needed role; or because of the presence of an environment that, by repeatedly stigmatizing conversations around sex, works towards making sure that students are not adequately responded to by their peers, teachers and parents.

It was only when Dr. Arun, a practitioner of General Medicine from Kerala’s Palakkad district, posted the photo of the page carrying this suggestion on social media, that due attention was given to the issue and the correction was made for the 2019-20 the edition of this textbook.

SCERT Director, J. Prasad, made the following statement,“The mistake, which is being ridiculed on social media, is there from 2016. As soon as it came to our notice, we asked the teachers to rectify it in the classes itself. Now the textbook to be distributed in 2019-20 by Kerala Books and Publication Society comes with the correction… Though I came to know about the said mistake through social media, I am yet to get into its details.”

Although the post regarding this goof-up went viral and the responsible individuals were compelled to respond and take heed of this criticism, it is important to pause and reflect on the gravity of the implication of this mistake. Not only did it suggest that polygamous, unmarried individuals are somehow more likely to be diseased, it also suggested that those who are HIV positive might be infected because they are, according to social norms and stereotypes, dissolute.

At a point in time where there are efforts being made to tackle prejudice against both sexually active and open individuals as well as those who are denied dignity and opportunity due to their HIV status, it is extremely problematic for such notions to be validated by school textbooks and be propagated through them.

This is not the first time government issued school textbooks have been criticized for their inane comments and insensitivity regarding social realities.

For instance, in April 2017, a Sociology textbook for Class 12 developed by Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education was widely criticized for justifying greater demands for dowry from women who are “ugly and handicapped.”

It is bad enough that natural and social sciences’ textbooks sometimes pose conjecture and fallacious stereotypes as facts to impressionable students, but clearly, a greater problem is the underlying lack of accountability. It takes years for these problems to surface, perhaps simply because our teachers and parents are passive channels of knowledge dissemination rather than active, responsible participants of that process.

However, the pressing need of the hour is the presence of more rigorous checking mechanisms within these seemingly credible and qualified government committees to ensure such mistakes are corrected before more harm is caused.