Articles on MAVA

Sex-Ed Debate
Hindustan Times, Mumbai
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Neha Bhayani

More Voices have been raised in favour of Sex Education. At a public symposium organised by non-governmental organisation Men Against Violence and Abuse (MAVA) in Dadar on Wednesday the common refrain of educationists and experts was that the state should retract its 'regressive' ban on sex education. The state decision has been taken without consulting teachers, student bodies, educationists, social workers or experts, pointed out Harish Sadani of MAVA. "This is not a subject of MLAs alone to debate on. It affects the common man and is for him to decide," he said. In a bid to give shape to its plan, MAVA will rope in experts to form a core committee to review existing sex education programmes and form guidelines for an appropriate curriculum. Plans are also afoot to initiate a dialogue with MLAs who are also teachers. Launching a campaign against the ban, MAVA has also recommended the introduction of sex education for Class 9 students, on a pilot basis, from the new academic year "The decision has taksn us back by 50 years," said former principal Arvind Vaidya, addrsssing the gathering. As a member of Stree Mukti Sangathana, Vaidya has been imparting sex education as part of its Jignayasa project since 1975. Ssnior counsellor Hemangi Naik, who has been imparting sex education in Navi Mumbai schools, also criticised the state's decision to ban the CBSE textbook for the Adolescence Education Programme. "The book is about life skills, not just Sex Education. It has some very useful chapters which teach teenagers how to deal with peer pressure and how to say 'no," she said. The participants also discussed the absurdity of the ban considering that the civic body has been successfully running a sexuality education programme — AIDS Prevention Education Programme — since 1993.