Date: Friday, 10th July 2015

Time: 5pm – Mingle | 5:30 – Panel Discussion Begins

Location: Sitara Studio, Dadar West (see below for directions)

Join us for our first live event, a debate on the merits of sex education in the Indian school system. Our panel of experts spans education, sexual health, psychology, and parenting, and will discuss the purpose of sex education and its impact on our children’s health and well-being. They will share their perspectives on sex education as it relates to gender equality, health, relationships and keeping children safe and informed. The discussion will be followed by a Q&A session. Learn more about our moderator and panelists below.

REGISTER HERE:

MODERATOR

Tara Sharma is an actor and producer and, more importantly, a devoted mum. Tara and her husband, Roopak, have two small children, Zen and Kai. Tara hosts and produces The Tara Sharma Show, a multi-platform show she conceptualized to document “the most incredible journey of my life: bringing up our kids.” The Tara Sharma Show – Diaries of a New Mum is preparing for its fourth season after three successful seasons on TV and her YouTube channel. The most recent season is a platform to discuss topical parenting issues with people from all walks of life. Guests in Season 3 include Mary Kom, Shilpa Shetty, Kajol, Konkona, Matthew Hayden, Juhi Chawla and others. An alumna of Bombay International School, UWC and the London School of Economics, Tara worked at Accenture before following her passion to act and create in the entertainment world.

PANELISTS

Prriety Gosalia is the CEO and Chief of Academics at Leapbridge Education, a Navneet Initiative. A passionate educator with more than two decades of experience in teaching and school administration, she regularly speaks at national education fora and also helps government Anganwadis through a couple of NGOs. She trains teachers in India and Kenya on effective teaching methods and leads parenting programs. She is the author of many pre-primary textbooks for Leapbridge Education and is a regular contributor to The Swaddle. Prriety is Commerce graduate  and holds a Diploma in Early Childhood Care and Education from Mumbai University, a Diploma in Multiple Intelligences from the Multiple Intelligences Institute, Singapore, a PGDEdM from NMIMS, Mumbai, and a B.Ed from YCMOU, Nasik.

Radhika Sharma is the Director of Training and Communications for Arpan, an NGO working on child sexual abuse. Radhika is a graduate in Psychology and a post graduate in Psychiatric Social work. She has been associated with the development sector for more than a decade while engaging with NGOs that address vulnerability and abuse. Her work has primarily been in the area of mental health, both service provision and policy-related advocacy. Her endeavour is to create greater discourse around mental health issues and to constantly try to respond to new challenges in order to better cater to clients’ needs. Radhika is also a mom to 3-year-old Reva and thoroughly enjoys learning from the little one!

Sonali Gupta is a practicing clinical psychologist with 11 years of experience working with educational institutes including Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), St. Gregorios High School, S.I.E.S, Don Bosco, Burhani College, as well as a private practice at the Sushrut Hospital in Chembur. She has extensive experience working with NGOs, World Bank projects, and corporations as well. Sonali’s expertise lies in subjects like child psychology, relationship counselling, parenting and marital counselling. She actively writes about issues such as co-parenting, the role parents can play in bringing up a child, digital detox, how can children benefit from therapy, and more as a regular contributor to The Swaddle. For more information on Sonali, visit her website, or follow her on Twitter @guptasonali.

Nilima Achwal is the founder and CEO of iesha, a for-profit social venture that builds and delivers digital courses on sexuality, reproduction and gender. Previously, Nilima has worked in leadership capacities across advisory, field-level, and research roles that lie in the intersection of entrepreneurship and social impact. She launched and ran social enterprise accelerator program SEED at Villgro Innovations Foundation in Chennai, helping early-stage social entrepreneurs to strengthen their business models and raise seed funding. She has also developed business case studies for faculty at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and assessed the impact of micro-loans on microfinance borrowers in Bolivia as a Kiva Fellow. Nilima graduated with distinction in Economics and Spanish from the University of Michigan.

Rukun Kaul is a digital content strategist at heart, and served as the sex columnist for FirstPost last year. When she’s not writing about sexual body politics or indulging in a menstrual hygiene management discourse on Twitter, she can be found browsing through vintage heirlooms that are way beyond her budget at estate sales.

Dr. Mahindra Watsa is India’s leading Sexpert and our surprise guest panelist. He has been at the forefront of the sex education movement in India for the last 50 years. Most popularly known for his irreverent humor in his one-line explanations of sexual issues,and his intriguing column in the Mumbai Mirror, Dr. Watsa has dedicated his career to minimizing sex myths, decreasing stigma around sexual issues and advocating for the importance of sex education.

Sitara Studios is opposite Atlantic Plaza Mall, near Elphinstone Junction in Dadar. Click here for directions.

Excited for the discussion? Take our quiz to see how much you know about sexual health already!