Swipe left on toxic love: Delhi University to launch course on 'Negotiating Intimate Relationships' for Gen Z

Time of India

2 days ago

New Delhi:
will teach its Gen Z students how to navigate red flags and heartbreaks in intimate relationships at a time when their lives are steeped in the heady cocktail of Tinder and Instagram.
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The new course, called "Negotiating Intimate Relationships", will be a general elective one. This means all students across disciplines will be able to study it. The course, which aims to stimulate conversation around romance, friendship, jealousy and break-ups, will start in the 2025-26 academic session.
DU felt the need for such a course — to be conducted by the department of psychology — as there is a general growing concern over rising crimes among teenagers that are triggered by failed or toxic relationships at a time when there is also a lack of emotional awareness about intimacy.
This four-credit course will have a structure of three lectures and one tutorial per week. It is designed for undergraduates who have cleared Class XII and have basic knowledge of introductory psychology. Students can opt for the course alongside their main subject, giving them the opportunity to engage in discussions on topics that are almost always overlooked in formal education.
Between late May and early June this year, Delhi saw three murders that showed how toxic intimacy, fuelled by social media, could turn deadly.
Twenty-one-year-old Komal, 19-year-old Vijaylaxmi and 18-year-old Mehek Jain were all killed by their partners who were allegedly driven by jealousy. Komal was strangled and her body was dumped in Chhawla canal. Vijaylaxmi was stabbed to death by her 20-year-old boyfriend, and Mehek was stabbed by her lover and set on fire in a park.
In 2022, the Shraddha Walkar case was in the headlines for months when police found out about the murder of the 27-year-old woman by her live-in partner, Aftab Poonawala, who was a former call centre colleague.
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Poonawala dismembered her body and scattered its parts over several days across Delhi.
Not all these cases involve students, but they point to a disturbing trend of young adults struggling with emotional regulation, obsession, a lack of awareness about healthy boundaries and constant social media monitoring. Experts believe that early intervention through structured education can play a critical role in building emotional resilience and awareness.
"These aren't isolated crimes. These are symptoms of a deeply rooted inability to regulate emotions, amplified by constant online monitoring of partners. Without early emotional education, this cycle will only worsen," said a psychologist, who did not wish to be named.
The contents of the DU course address the multi-layered complications of real-life relationships. It is divided into four units.
The course starts with "The Psychology of Friendships and Intimate Relationships", which details how friendships are formed, their effects, and how they evolve into romantic or long-term bonds like dating or marriage.
The second unit, "Understanding Love," explores theories such as Sternberg's triangular theory of love and the two-factor theory of love. It will also explain concepts of sexuality.
Perhaps, the most crucial is unit 3, which is called "Signs of Relationships Going Sour". It will focus of teaching students the cues to read red flags such as jealousy, romantic transgressions, break-ups, and intimate partner violence early in a relationship.
The final unit, "Flourishing Relationships," shifts the focus to building positive families and improving relationship satisfaction through communication and emotional support.
The course is designed to be interactive and will have a tutorial component. Students will analyse their social media networks, participate in self-awareness and forgiveness exercises, and debate real-world problems like online dating debacles on Tinder. The course will discuss pop culture moments like the controversy over partner violence shown in the film
and the larger-than-life romance in the film Titanic.
"Films reflect how love is often idealised or even normalised when it's toxic. But when analysed in a classroom, they can become powerful tools to deconstruct unhealthy patterns," Latika Gupta, a faculty member at Delhi University, said. "If we want to prevent emotional harm, we will have to start having honest conversations early."
Gupta said: "No one teaches how to handle rejection or set boundaries. If we learn this early, some of the tragedies wouldn't happen."