Surveys reveal as much about the surveyed as about the surveyors. A survey of the sexual behaviour, attitudes, histories and awareness levels of boys and girls in almost 3,000 schools across 19 districts in Madhya Pradesh is no exception. Some good things have come out of it. More children seem to be aware of HIV-related risks and precautions, and have claimed to have acted on their awareness. The students have also felt free enough to admit that many of them watch pornography, and several girls have said that they have taken the initiative in sex. A simplistic definition of ?abuse? has also been complicated by some of the girls speaking of having enjoyed the sex to which they have been initiated by older family members or even teachers. These are all problematic aspects of ?under-age? sexual behaviour that have to be looked in the face. The Madhya Pradesh State AIDS Control Society, which had conducted the survey, seems not to have flinched from these realities and complexities.

But, given that this survey was a result of worries about HIV/AIDS, it would be misleading and dangerous for the state to come to conclusions about the sexual behaviour and awareness levels of young people solely from such a survey. Confining itself to schools seriously limits its scope, and one hopes that the limits were not defined unthinkingly, because of the social blinkers of the surveyors. India is the country with the largest number of streetchildren, for instance, most of whom become sexually active, and are sexually abused, from a very early age. What about including them in a similar survey? Not all children who do not go to school are streetchildren, but might well be working children, or children who do not live with their families, and are therefore their own sexual educators and regulators. What do such children know about safe and unsafe sex? What do they do when they have sex with one another or with other adults? What sort of access do they have to condoms, or HIV testing centres, or even to basic information regarding HIV/AIDS? It was reassuring to learn of the non-judgmental attitude of these surveyors. But did they question the children about same-sex behaviour? Would the children have felt just as free to talk about this as they did when discussing heterosexual sex? These remain important questions and misgivings. Surveyors and those who interpret the surveys cannot afford not to voice them, or act on the answers and implications.