By IANS
New Delhi : Just because some parts of the material on sex education for school children are objectionable to certain people, sex education cannot be banned in totality. The material can always be reviewed and altered, said experts here Tuesday.
A gathering of over 40 representatives of NGOs, women’s groups, child rights groups, researchers and academics from across the country participated in the two-day National Consultation on Sexuality Education for Young People Dec 17-18 in the capital.
“Banning sex education is not the solution. If there is a problem with the material, that can always be reviewed and modified,” Uma Chakravarti, feminist historian, told IANS.
“In fact, the National Centre for Education, Research and Training (NCERT) should take the lead and set up a broad-based committee with regard to this and draw the civil society, specialists and other stakeholders together to address the issue,” she said.
Paromita Chakravarti, professor of Jadavpur University in Kolkata, said the material, be it the content or the pictorial description, can be altered.
“In the consultation, it was discussed that some things in the material, such as the constant gender demarcation, in the sense that the girl is always shown as the victim and the boy as the aggressive adolescent, are not right.
“In a study among school-going children in Chennai, more boys reported abuse than girls! Although that is not the case always, yet it’s wrong to think that adolescent boys are not abused,” Chakravarti said.
“Also, the way of imparting sex information in the books is too negative. Everything is in the context of HIV, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) or unwanted pregnancy. The idea is to make the young aware of their sexuality, not to put it in their heads as a burden,” she added.
The experts also said that teachers and parents should be counselled as to how to teach and answer children’s queries on the subject.
“Sometimes a not-so-great book can work wonders if handled by a capable staff. And even the best of the books can go wrong if not handled well,” Chakravarti said.
The experts concluded that sex education ultimately is a tool for children to protect themselves against abuse.
“The right to information and the right to protect themselves is the children’s basic right and we must respect that,” Chakravarti said.