UN Agencies pushing sex education in India: Critics

[Guest guest]

UN Agencies pushing sex education in India: Critics

New Delhi, Sep 18 : Charging that United Nations agencies are pushing

sex education in India ostensibly to curb HIV/AIDS, opponents today

demanded that schools in the Capital immediately follow in the

footsteps of states that have ''banned the syllabus.''

Although ten states have banned sex education that was set to start

from July 16, the Delhi government is ''going ahead with the

implementation,'' Dinanath Batra told a rally outside Delhi Vidhan

Sabha.

Batra heads a group called 'Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti'

campaigning against sex education in schools, saying it will make

kids sexually active, undermining family and other traditional values.

''Is this what we want our children to learn in school?''Batra asked.

Under the cover of combating Human Immunodeficiency virus and

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, critics say, Indian authorities

are colluding with multinational companies to drum up condom sales.

''The Adoloscence Education programme is being promoted and pushed by

organisations such as UNICEF-- Children's Fund, UNFPA-- Fund for

Population Activities-- and WHO-- World Health Organisation in the

name of curbing HIV/AIDS,'' Batra said.

Delhi Public School Association president R C Jain said the United

States authorities are imposing a fine of 25 dollars on girls who

wear low-waist jeans, while Indian authorities seem to have no

problem with such display.

Former Delhi Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has warned the Assembly

that sex education in Western societies has contributed to

proliferation of sexual activity.

Activists cite how single-parent families and teen pregnancies have

become the biggest concerns in the West.

The campaign has drawn support from spokesmen of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh

and Christian faith.

The Human Resource Development Ministry decided to introduce Sex

Education-- Adolescence Education-- in schools in the 2007 academic

session starting July 16.

Ten States-- Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan,

Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa--

have declined to implement it, Samiti officials said.

Course material samples are replete with such terms as masturbation,

sexual intercourse and safe sex, not to mention genitalia, opponents

said.

Critics question the need to introduce such content and criticize HRD

Minister Arjun Singh, Delhi Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely

and the Central Board of Secondary Education.

The issue figured in Parliament last month and the government

announced steps to assign experts to produce ''a guideline'' for

implementing sex education programme.

Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi said

a National Adolescence Education Programme Toolkit Review Committee

has been set up by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO).

NACO itself is one of the authors of the controversial Programme

under fire over content critics say may do more harm than good.

--- UNI

http://www.newkerala.com/oct.php?action=fullnews & id=2295

__________________

" Dr. Avnish Jolly " <avnishjolly@...>

[Guest guest]

Dear FORUM,

It is bad public health to be in continued denial in state policy regarding sex

and sex education. Adolescent sexual activity is a reality and cannot be wished

away or prevented by “fundamentalist” religious or moralistic education.

Single (woman-headed) families is also not as rare as one would delude oneself

in India. In Manipur, such kinds of families are quite common already. To delay

sex education under any pretext, such as issuing pompous guidelines, is as good

as saying go ahead and screw yourselves till you die.

Let us tell people like the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti to get real.

A letter should be written to them from civil society organisations.

So the critics have had media exposure, how about the proponents?

Roy Laifungbam

CORE

Centre for Organisation Research & Education [indigenous Peoples' Centre for

Policy and Human Rights in India's Eastern Himalayan Territories]

Loisanglen:

Post Box No. 99

Gate No.2, Palace Compound

Imphal 795001, Manipur India

Tel/Fax: +91 (385) 2228169

Email: coreloisanglen@...

<roy.laifungbam@...>