Talking Taboos Transparently - Sex Education - Niyati N Shah

We Indians are very passionate about education. From an early age, that is even before a child speaks coherently, he is admitted to an educational institution.

In the race for being well-educated, every aspect of the course, every chapter in it is stressed and repeated over and over till it is drilled right into the brain of the student.

However, there’s an aspect of education itself, which is totally ignored by the society. That ignored facet is Sex Education.

Today, we bring to you a pioneer in her own right, taking taboos head-on, Niyatii N Shah.

Niyatii is the founder of Averti, a one-of-a-kind organization which prides itself in educating parents

and their children on a whole range of issues often shunned by the mainstream education and social

machine. Averti aims to educate parents on how to handle tricky situations when their growing

children ask questions pertaining to their changing bodies and sexuality.

We sat down with Niyatii to discuss with her, her journey and the obstacles she faced along the

ways in opening up such a taboo subject of our society.

The Journey

 Niyatii is a hardcore Mumbaikar at heart, she hails from a liberal Gujarati family. Although she has completed her graduation in commerce, psychology is her favorite. She did realize that she isn’t very passionate about business when she had tried her hand at it.

When she was pregnant with her first child, she had made up her mind that she would answer all of her child’s queries honestly and ensure that her kid would never be afraid to ask her about anything.

She realized that people hesitate to talk about such things even today when she attended one of the talks in her son’s school. 

Niyatii, a mother of two, not only wanted to be a honest parent, but she wanted to take this to another level – to make every parent realize the importance of understanding what their children go through in their growing stages. This is what made her take a new step towards bringing out a transformation in the society, and become a sex educator.

Challenges and Adversities

We live in a society which is not very conducive to sex-education. When Niyatii started her initiative of sex-education, it wasn’t a cake work. The biggest hurdle was the incorrect perception of sex education. “Whenever the word ‘Sex-education’ is mentioned, people automatically jump to the

conclusion that it’s just ‘Sex’ and that’s the end of it”, says Niyatti with a wan smile. She adds that her team at Averti is working day in and out towards the goal of changing this perception. They believe that changing this perception is the first step in improving our society as a whole. Averti has brought a great transformation in her professional as well as personal life, with the immense support

of her wonderful husband Nilesh in every step of her journey. As a person, she has become more open and confident in dealing with topics that she was hesitant about and were considered a taboo. She has discovered the new version of herself, a potential speaker, a motivator.

Teaching Grade 6-10 students

 Teaching grade 6-10 students

A glimpse of Averti workshop:

If you are a parent attending workshop, Averti addresses all the changes children go through.

This includes but is not limited to:

• Growth of facial hair.
• Onset of periods.
• Change in voice.
• Change in physical appearance in the girls.

A word from Niyatii -

Parents all across the breadth of our nation should know that sex education is about making children understand the various physical and emotional changes they go through. It’s about making them confident with these developing stages of their lives. Parents should feel comfortable while talking to children about such topics and answer their queries appropriately, giving them honest and scientific answers in the best possible way when children are too young to grasp the reality.

We would like to tell Averti that this is a really ground-breaking thing they’re onto. Educating parents

about how to handle children’s changing physiques and mentality is a really noble task. And we

would like to wish Averti all the very best for the future.