Dark Room

By Pankaj Butalia

About the book

The book is the much-needed beginning of a conversation, outside of specialized, academic circles, on child sexuality in India The middle-class view throughout the world is that the pre-adolescent stage is an age of innocence-one that precedes the  discovery of sex. Why we insist on believing this in the face of so much evidence to the contrary is a mystery. The book reminds us of the centrality of sex in our lives, including when we are very young. It is a complex area for adults to navigate.  On the one hand, parents need to give their children space and not inhibit the natural progression children need to make in the development of their sexuality. On the other, they need to be extremely careful that their offspring do not transcend boundaries of what could be called age-appropriate behaviour. Given the taboo that surrounds sex, it is not surprising that happy memories of childhood and child sexuality are intertwined with those of sexual abuse, fear and trauma. It is difficult, if not impossible, to talk about one without coming across the other.