2008 Woodie Awards
Maharashtra government in India Bans Sex Education
Deena Zaru
Issue date: 9/7/07 Section: World
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The government of Maharashtra, which is India's third largest state, banned the introduction of sex education in schools in hope of silencing protestors who fear that its implementation will corrupt their youth.
According to BBC News, this step is seen as an impediment to the central government as it tries to make sex education a country-wide phenomena.
With an estimated five million Indians who are HIV positive, India has the highest number of AIDS patients in the world. As this statistic is rapidly increasing, a counter push for the implementation of sex education is also intensifying.
BBC News reported that generally, parents in India hesitate to talk about sex to their children. Schools are only permitted to teach basic facts that are generally limited to reproductive and biological changes in males and females.
"To begin with, India is a very culturally conservative country and a lot of things like sex, especially premarital sex, AIDS, prostitution, and homosexuality are cultural taboos," said senior Indian native Rohit Gandhi. "So the culture in India makes talking about sex much harder."
N. N. Nayar, the principal of APJ school near the city of Mumbai, said to BBC News that the school was ordered to educate children about "social evils," such as premarital sex, homosexuality and promiscuity.
"Our endeavor is to make children aware of these evils such as drug addiction, alcoholism and other dangerous things," said Nayar to BBC News. "I am of the opinion that sex education by itself is not important, what is important is a holistic approach to the issue of social evils."
He went on to say that most children are already aware of these issues through television and the Internet.
"It doesn't matter whether we tell our girl child to be careful and not mingle with strangers," said Nayar. "She already knows she should not do it."
Gandhi said that the main problem is that the parents don't want their kids to be exposed to sex because they think it would cause them to be more interested in experimentation.
According to BBC News, this step is seen as an impediment to the central government as it tries to make sex education a country-wide phenomena.
With an estimated five million Indians who are HIV positive, India has the highest number of AIDS patients in the world. As this statistic is rapidly increasing, a counter push for the implementation of sex education is also intensifying.
BBC News reported that generally, parents in India hesitate to talk about sex to their children. Schools are only permitted to teach basic facts that are generally limited to reproductive and biological changes in males and females.
"To begin with, India is a very culturally conservative country and a lot of things like sex, especially premarital sex, AIDS, prostitution, and homosexuality are cultural taboos," said senior Indian native Rohit Gandhi. "So the culture in India makes talking about sex much harder."
N. N. Nayar, the principal of APJ school near the city of Mumbai, said to BBC News that the school was ordered to educate children about "social evils," such as premarital sex, homosexuality and promiscuity.
"Our endeavor is to make children aware of these evils such as drug addiction, alcoholism and other dangerous things," said Nayar to BBC News. "I am of the opinion that sex education by itself is not important, what is important is a holistic approach to the issue of social evils."
He went on to say that most children are already aware of these issues through television and the Internet.
"It doesn't matter whether we tell our girl child to be careful and not mingle with strangers," said Nayar. "She already knows she should not do it."
Gandhi said that the main problem is that the parents don't want their kids to be exposed to sex because they think it would cause them to be more interested in experimentation.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
raj
posted 9/18/07 @ 1:25 PM EST
rather there should be Yoga education, to control mind and body....Yogis of india could control their SOUL to get (self) MOXA ...its easy to control mind from sex with few attempts. (Continued…)
rajesh
posted 9/18/07 @ 1:34 PM EST
its a good news...
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