Sex education in 1.5 lakh schools soon

Kounteya Sinha / TNN / Mar 30, 2008, 00:26 IST

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The government plans to make sex education a co-curricular activity in over 1.5 lakh higher secondary and senior secondary government schools.

NEW DELHI: Commenting on the 'milder' version of the new sex education manual that was submitted to the National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco), director-general K Sujatha Rao said, "We hope the nine states that raised objections over the material earlier will lift their ban on sex education as a subject after seeing the new manual. We are making separate advocacy manuals for teachers and principals."
According to health ministry officials, the first meeting of the 10-member review committee was held on August 8, 2007.Since then, nearly 10 extensive meetings were held between the committee and civil society representatives to finalise the prototype.
The government plans to make sex education a co-curricular activity in over 1.5 lakh higher secondary and senior secondary government schools. Such classes had started in 2005. "But last year's controversy stalled the programme.

We hope to initiate sex education across the country again by early next year once the manuals are finalized," an official said.
"Trained teachers educate children about the need to say no to peer pressure, teenage sex and about HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and contraception. If sex education is not imparted to children, they could make wrong decisions that could have an adverse impact on their future and health," Rao said.

The decision to review the original sex manual was taken after nine states, including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, banned sex education last year, fearing it would corrupt young minds. Proponents of the ban felt sex education would make students imbibe decadent western morality. Some politicians even accused Naco of encouraging permissiveness among young people.
Among the course elements that had generated much heat were discussions on homosexuality and descriptions of sexual acts, including masturbation. They have now been dropped. Constant gender demarcation - girls shown as the victim and the boy as the aggressive adolescent - was also objected to.
"How can we close our eyes to the truth that they need right education, otherwise they will get wrong information from the Internet or TV?" Rao said. A survey conducted by Naco among 40,000 Indians had revealed that 8.4% had non-regular sexual partners in the past six months, putting them at risk of contracting infections. Less than half of the sexually active adolescents used condoms consistently.
According to WHO, early sex education delays the start of sexual activity, reduces sexual activity among young people and encourages those already sexually active to have safer sex. Researchers have found no support for the contention that sex education encourages sexual experimentation or increased sexual activity.
"Banning sex education would be hypocrisy. Our survey has shown that 15% of total deliveries in India involve teenage girls," an official said.
(kounteya.sinha@timesgroup.com)

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