The Committee on Petitions (Rajya Sabha) will submit its report on the feasibility of making sex education a part of school curriculum during the budget session of Parliament.

Senior BJP leader and Committee Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters that divergent views had emerged when the committee interacted with teachers, educationists, parents and students. Some felt that sex education in schools was against India’s culture, while others viewed it as a necessity.

The committee had so far received 80,000 petitions from the public on the issue, he said. The committee had so far visited West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and will be visiting Kerala on Thursday.
He said many stakeholders felt that the ‘Adolescent Education Programme’ module for high school students launched in association with the National AIDS Control Organisation was not in good taste. Another view was that the focus of the programme should be shifted from sex education to life skill development.

Interaction
In Bangalore, the committee visited some schools and also held an interaction meeting at Vidhana Soudha. Last year, the controversy over sex education had now snowballed into a national row with seven states including Karnataka, Kerala Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh deciding against its implementation.

The committee also held discussions with media heads on the need for having code of conduct for the electronic media. A Media Council of India on the lines of Press Council of India is also being mooted, Mr Naidu said.