New Delhi: The apex body responsible for controlling AIDS in the country is ready to review the sex education material it provides to schools in the wake of several states raising objections but will advise them not to ban the subject.
Speaking for the first time on the controversy, National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) Director General K Sujatha Rao said her organisation agreed that the material, which is only for teachers of senior secondary schools, should not be brazen or explicit.
"We are open to setting up an expert committee to review our material. They could bring changes if they find something which hurts people's cultural sensitivity but without compromising on the message, which should be loud and clear," Rao said.
Describing the move by governments in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh to ban sex education as "hypocrisy", Rao said this would particularly impact children from poor families who depend on schools for providing the right information.
The Union health ministry will take up the matter with state governments. "The ministry doesn't want these states to take a hasty decision against imparting life-skill education, which also talks about sexual health and HIV," she said.
"Banning sex education is hypocrisy on their part. It is rubbish and totally nonsense that we don't need sex education. Our survey has shown that teenage boys are indulging in casual sex. Fifteen per cent of total deliveries in India involve teenage girls," Rao explained.
According to NACO, there are 5.2 million people affected by HIV in the country and 57 per cent of them live in rural areas.
Clarifying that the sex education module, especially books with pictures that raised a storm, is meant for senior teachers to understand and then impart knowledge to children, Rao said the material gives basic information to adolescents about the body and physiological changes they are likely to experience.
Trained teachers educate children about the need to say no to peer pressure, sex and risky situations and about HIV-AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and contraception, she said.
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.
Apart from the five states that have banned sex education, Kerala has suspended it while putting it under review.
"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," she said.
"When they don't get information from their parents and teachers, they turn to peers or the media, which is usually not the right (source for) information," Rao said.
A recent survey conducted by NACO among 40,000 youth across the country revealed that 8.4 per cent 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 use condoms consistently, the NACO survey showed.
"We have found that those children who were taught life skills were able to tackle risky situations in a better and wise manner," Rao said.
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