Chennai Plays Host to 'International Conference on Sexology'

The fourth 'International Conference on Sexology', held at Chennai, was attended by nearly 600 delegates from 20 countries worldwide.

The main objective of the two-day seminar, held from February 14-15, was to deliberate over current health concerns of India and also the need to openly address the highly stigmatized sexual issues.

"Discrimination is a very big problem and it has been there for ages especially towards the sexual minorities. But now when we are facing the HIV epidemic, we have to be much more open minded. Besides, we cannot hide and we do not have the luxury to simply wait and deny," said Giorgi Pkhakadze, a programme specialist, HIV/AIDS, United Nations.

Apart from addressing common sexual problems, experts also laid stress on developing healthy attitude towards same gender sex, transgender population, HIV/AIDS, and STD diseases.

The conference, organised by Chennai based Akash fertility Hospital, also addressed sexual problems among females and spread of HIV/AIDS among children and adults.

"This year, we are focusing mainly on female sexuality and female sexual problems. Actually, we generally forget that females have sexual problems and that needs to be addressed.

This year, we are focusing on that aspect. What all problems they are facing and how to correct it and also to prevent the spread of HIV among children and adults other things," said Kamaraj, a sexologist from Chennai.

Sex in India is still considered a taboo and people often shy away from talking on the issue. Today, India has the second largest population of HIV infected population in the world.

Source-ANI
TAN/L