Shillong;
In the recently concluded Autumn Session of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, Nongkrem MLA Ardent M. Basaiawmoit has stirred public debate with his speech on issues of morality, HIV prevention, and sex education. While his statement would be seen by his supporters as him expressing a valid and urgent health crisis, his proposed remedy or solutions, however, is problematic as it is not only outdated but a complete disconnect from the ground realities that are faced by our young people today.
The MLA argued that condom promotion leads to promiscuity and undermines tribal and religious values is a stand and approach that has been repeatedly shown to fail in both preventing infections and addressing real-world behavioural patterns. His call for a “morality-first” approach will be supported and is in line with the cultural sentiments in some circles, but as a general public policy, it is not supported by evidence. In fact, what the data from Meghalaya clearly shows is not a crisis of morality, but a crisis of information, access, and education. This approach to Repackage fear and shame as prevention strategies only adds to the complications of an already complicated and complex problem — it will in fact drive people, especially youth, further into silence and vulnerability
In the latest Sankalak 2024 report by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), Meghalaya’s HIV prevalence rate stands at 0.54%, more than double the national average of 0.22%. This ranks the state seventh highest in India and third in the Northeast, which is a disturbing statistic for a region often celebrated for its close-knit social structures. Even more worrying is Meghalaya’s position at the top in the country for syphilis positivity, with an 8.4% rate.
These figures do not reflect a moral collapse. In fact, they reflect a systemic failure in education and health sector with limited access to testing, awareness and early intervention.
Additionally, in 2021, a study by Martin Luther Christian University found that 7.9% of pregnancies in Meghalaya are among teenagers, higher than the national average of 6.8%. Other estimates put this figure at nearly 10% in some districts. Shockingly, the average age of pregnancy is just 16, and in many cases, it occurs during a girl’s first sexual experience. This is not a statistic that can be dismissed lightly. These young people are not engaging in sex because they were handed condoms nor because they lack morality but, they are doing so without the information or support to make safe and informed choice. The issue of teenage pregnancy shows just how lacking and inefficient the current approach to youth education really is.
Meghalaya does not need a return to regressive narratives that conflate sexual education with immorality. Instead, it needs a bold, honest, professionally handled by trained psychologists/counsellors, and age-appropriate approach to sex education that meets young people where they are, such that it is accessible and relatable.
While I do agree that abstinence can be one option, and an important one at that, it cannot, however, be the only message, especially when it is imposed in a way that is morally enforced, unrelatable, and completely ignores the complexity of real human behaviour. Evidence from global and national public health studies clearly shows that comprehensive sex education — which includes accurate information about contraception, consent, relationships, and bodily autonomy — is the most effective strategy to reduce rates of sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies.
The minister’s idea that legal confidentiality for HIV-positive individuals should be reconsidered is equally troubling. While protecting public safety is important, undermining patient privacy could do irreparable damage to trust in the healthcare system. If people fear being publicly exposed or criminalized, they will avoid testing and treatment — precisely what contributes to the unchecked spread of infections. The balance between protecting individual rights and public health must be maintained through ethical, informed, and rights-based policies, not through moral judgment. The ongoing failure in our public health and education system is that it has not adapted to the evolving needs but is stuck to the same formula of data-driven approaches. This is not a moral failure. It’s a Leadership failure.
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What Meghalaya urgently need is a shift from the band-aid experiments projects and programmes it so loves to a more coordinated, culturally sensitive, and science-backed restructuring of its educational and public health sectors.
This top-down system led by bureaucrats and political leaders has time and time again proven to not work and is prone to corruption and manipulative results and outcomes. Any new changes and effort must involve educators, healthcare professionals, parents, trained psychologists, community leaders, and young people themselves.
Intervention should not be a one-time data driven effort. It should be a continuous and evolving process that focuses on quality education and awareness where curriculums are designed to be age-appropriate and tiered across different stages of schooling.
In early grades for example, children must be taught about basic hygiene, personal boundaries, and body safety.
In middle school, the curriculum should introduce concepts related to puberty, emotional changes, and respect in friendships.
By high school, students should have access to comprehensive sex education that includes discussions on contraception, sexually transmitted infections, consent, healthy relationships, and so on.
It is crucial, however, that the right people with the correct qualification is in the right role and in this regard, the Government must teach itself the differences between various professionals in the helping profession.
Although teachers can be equipped with the training and resources to deliver sensitive and accurate information, it can also present in itself a problem as not every educator is comfortable or qualified to handle such topics, which is why schools and health institutions must bring in trained psychological counsellors as they are the only professionals that can offer age-appropriate guidance and mental health support, helping to foster a safer and more informed environment for students.
At the same time, a professional like a social worker can work on community-based interventions which will work hand-in-hand with institutional efforts. They can liaison with Local Leaders like the headmen, church elders, and traditional authority figures as they have a powerful role to play in shifting public perception. Their participation should not be about moral policing or policing youth behaviour, but about reinforcing health-positive messaging within a cultural framework. They can help dispel myths, reduce stigma, and encourage openness especially in rural or conservative areas where the government authorities have constantly ignored and institutions have limited reach. For this to be successful, these leaders themselves must be sensitized through workshops and training led by public health experts and trained psychologists.
The public health campaigns need to move beyond the old method of only doing central funded awareness drives but it needs to be part of the community engagement. Campaigns must be rooted in local languages, storytelling traditions, and peer-led education models. Youth ambassadors under the guidance of trained psychological professionals can play a transformative role in making these conversations relatable, non-threatening and non judgemental. The aim is not to lecture, but to empower. Real change does not emerge from fear, morality or control, but from knowledge, empathy and support.
The criticism of institutions like the Meghalaya AIDS Control Society (MACS) should not be used as a rationale for rejecting scientific approaches. Instead, we should be asking how these institutions can be better managed, held accountable, and ensure that they are integrated into a broader health education and prevention ecosystem. Strengthening these agencies means that they are subjected to a social and financial audit by an independent body to ensure that they have adequate funding, updated training modules, access to qualified competent staff, and clear objective and goals such that interventions can be responsive and evidence-based.
If leaders truly care about the future of the state, they must be willing to engage with difficult truths. Blanket moralizing will not solve such complex, multidimensional crisis.
Leaders need to accept that young people are already navigating relationships, sex, drugs and so on whether adults acknowledge it or not. A proper public health policy should be about reducing harm, equipping children and youths with the tools and skills to handle and cope and to do so safely, respectfully, and confidently. Its about building trust — not enforcing outdated ideals through shame and fear and moral judgement.
What Meghalaya needs is leadership that will embraces honesty over denial, science over sentiment, and compassion over judgment. It needs to re-evaluate its current data driven, central funded system that focus more on quantity rather than quality and learn the basics like putting trained professionals like trained counsellors, social workers and educators in the right roles such that age-appropriate curriculum can be implemented. It also needs community leaders who will uplift rather than suppress vital conversations. Most of all, it needs to treat its youth not as problems to be controlled, but as individuals deserving of dignity, knowledge, and the right to make informed choices.
(The writer is an experienced counsellor with a background in mental health advocacy and practice and can be reached at roneymlyndem@gmail.com.)
