Tradition as shield: Kajol and Shahrukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, a film in which they played NRIs with traditional values

London, May 8: No one has done a proper survey on ?sex and the Indian girl? but The Lancet, the well-known British medical journal, has covered some of the ground in a new report.

It has conducted research on sexually transmitted diseases in the UK and come to a conclusion which might seem obvious ? the age of first sexual intercourse for Indian and Pakistani girls is older than the rest of the population and this gives them protection against sexually transmitted infection (STI).

They also appear to have fewer sexual partners.

Another factor is that marriage is a lot more common among Indians and Pakistanis and this, too, works in their favour.

In the report, ?Sexual life- styles vary among ethnic groups in the UK?, it is stated: ?New research published in The Lancet confirms that levels of sexual risk behaviour and the chance of acquiring a sexually transmitted infection vary among Britain’s main ethnic populations. The National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles examined differences in sexual lifestyles between Britain’s main ethnic groups and found that Indian and Pakistani groups had the lowest levels of risk behaviours and reported STI infections, probably reflecting cultural norms characterised by later age of first intercourse and fewer reported sexual partners compared with other ethnic groups.?

Among young Indians, even among women, old attitudes are changing but enough of traditional culture remains and is reflected in The Lancet’s research.

To help Indian and Pakistani respondents for whom English was not their first language, all study materials, including the face-to-face and the self-completion questionnaires, were translated into Punjabi and Urdu.

The research team was made up of scientists from the University College London, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the National Centre for Social Research.

?We did a stratified probability sample survey of 11,161 men and women aged 16-44 years, resident in Great Britain, using computer-assisted interviews,? says a researcher. ?Additional sampling enabled us to do more detailed analyses for 949 black Caribbean, black African, Indian and Pakistani respondents.?

The scientists ?found that Indian and Pakistani groups had the lowest levels of risk behaviours and reported STI infections, probably reflecting cultural norms characterised by later age of first intercourse and fewer reported sexual partners compared with other ethnic groups.

For example, the average age at first intercourse was over 20 for Indian and Pakistani men and women but around 17 for other groups?.

The report says: ?Differences were also found by gender. Black African and black Caribbean men reported higher levels of sexual risk behaviour and higher incidence of STIs compared with white, Indian and Pakistani men.?

Approximately one in 25 white women reported being diagnosed with an STI in the past 5 years compared with one in 11 black Caribbean women and one in 13 black African women; and fewer than one in 50 Pakistani and Indian women, according to the researchers.

Fewer than one in 50 Indian and Pakistani men reported being diagnosed with an STI in the past five years, compared with one in 34 white men, and one in 13 black African and black Caribbean men.

White women reported an average of 5 lifetime partners compared with 4 reported by black Caribbean women, 3 by black African women and ?1 by both Indian and Pakistani women?.

This would suggest that Indian and Pakistani women remain faithful to the first man with whom they have sex.

The report says: ?Cohabiting was uncommon in Indian and Pakistani men and women compared with white ethnic groups. Indian women were among the most highly educated and the least likely ethnic groups to report having no educational qualifications.?