Premarital sex is no longer something Indians don't talk about. It's not a taboo either, and adults of our country no longer look the other way when they get to know that two people are ‘doing it’ before they are married.

What the adults do is simple: they just get the couple married off.

Young adults of India need to be very, very careful before exercising the freedom of choice guaranteed by the constitution.

According to a recent ruling by the Madras High Court, “If a bachelor has completed 21 years of age and an unmarried woman, 18 years they have acquired the freedom of choice guaranteed by the Constitution. Consequently, if any couple choose to consummate their sexual cravings, then that act becomes a total commitment with adherence to all consequences that may follow, except on certain exceptional considerations.”

With great freedom, indeed, comes great responsibility.

The court also ruled that either the man or the woman can subsequently submit an affidavit in court with “documentary proof” of their sexual act, and they will be considered man and wife.

While the court, in this particular case, was ruling in favour of a litigant from Coimbatore who claimed maintenance from her former ‘husband’, though their wedding had not been ‘solemnised’, what could make the decision sound slightly regressive is the fact that the bench decided to look at all cases as the same, “except,” of course, “on certain exceptional considerations.”

So, sex education is passé. Awareness about safe sex is also so yesterday. Finding a solution to youngsters and their issues with sex, drugs and general growing up is also so 1882. A country which cannot grapple with its younger generations growing up in an era of information and media explosion, and is struggling to give them a direction, has found a convenient way to keep them grounded. Of course, there is nothing in India that cannot be solved by marriage. And for the rest of the problems, there is of course the act of procreation.

In a country where a child lives in brahmacharya ashram under the guidance of a teacher for 25 years of his life, then marries a woman of his parent's choice (who is of the same caste, sub caste but differs in gotra) and then goes off in search of God, there are little in the name of choices given to them. Even today, if you look around, youngsters are always told what to do and derided when they do not follow the norms. It is almost as if independent decision-making will spell doom for the society.

Come on, India, youngsters are having sex – premarital, consensual sex. Teach them how to handle growing up. We can ring the wedding bells later.