Starting blog on review of sex toy

955 votes

There has been significant opposition to sex education, specifically for adolescents. In 2007, when sex education curriculum was promoted by India's Ministry of Human Resource Development, controversy developed. Many opponents believed that sex education would corrupt youth and be anathema to traditional Indian values. Additionally, they believed it would lead to promiscuity and irresponsible behavior. Finally, they argued that sex education was a western construct that was being forced upon India. These arguments cause states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Goa to ban sex education programming.

In March 2007, the Maharashtra state government banned sex education in schools.The ban came after the ruling and opposition Members of the Legislative Assembly claimed that western countries had forced the Central government to implement the program. In April 2007 Basavaraj Horatti, the Karnataka Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, said that the program has been put on hold after complaints from teachers. The teachers had complained that the books were oriented towards increasing the sales of condoms and that they were sexually provocative. A women's organisation, Akhila Bharatha Mahila Samskruthika Sanghatane, also protested the course in the state.

On May 15, 2007, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan removed sex education from the state curriculum on the grounds that it offended Indian values, acting on the advice of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue Dinanath Batra. Batra suggested that yoga be added to the curriculum instead.This view was criticised by S. Anandhi, a scholar of gender issues, who wrote that sex-education was vital for combatting child sexual abuse and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Later that year, Batra wrote a letter on behalf of the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, which stated that teachers who followed the sex-education curriculum could be jailed for two years on the charge of "outraging the modesty of a woman."

In May 2007, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje wrote a letter to Arjun Singh, the Union Minister of Human Resource Development. In the letter, she stated that children in Class IX and XI did not require sex education because they were in the early stages of puberty. The state Education Minister Ghansyam Tiwari stated that they already had a life skills course called Jeevan Shaili which was sufficient.

In June 2009, Orissa Education Minister Bishnu Charan Das stated that they were delaying introduction of sex education by a year as a result of protests by teachers' organisations and students' political groups. Rajendra Burma of All India Democratic Students' Organisation (AIDSO) claimed that it would cause innocent students to become too curious about sex.

In July 2009, a teachers' association protested the introduction of sex education in Uttar Pradesh. Om Prakash Sharma, the chief of the association, said that it would result in embarrassing questions from students. He threatened to burn the books on a bonfire if they were not withdrawn.

Ram Madhav of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) called sex education unfit for Indian society. He instead proposed that workshops be held for adults only to warn them against a promiscuous lifestyle. Prakash Javadekar of the BJP proposed that sex education should consist of abstinence-only education. Another BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi stated that the course would disturb the mental development of children and claimed that multinational companies were behind this to boost the sales of condoms.

For over 60 years Communist party and Congress Government refused to act on sex education.

Opponents of sex education for adolescents are swayed if sex education is deemed to be culturally sensitive and in line with Indian values. This can be achieved if the government and NGOs work in tandem to create curriculum that is acceptable to schools and the community. This trend may change as years progress because adolescents tend to have a more liberal view towards sex than adults.

Advocate Aveek Bose LawRato