Centre to ask Maharashtra govt not to stop sex education: Renuka

New Delhi, Apr 9 (UNI) The Centre will urge the Maharashtra Government not to stop sex imparting education in schools as it would help children identify sexual abuse and speak against it, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury said today.

''We will take up with the Maharashtra Government about what their objections (about sex education in schools) are. There could be reservations about the words and the manner in which the information is imparted but not on the information as such,'' Ms Chowdhury said when asked about the Maharashtra government's plan to discontinue with such education in schools.

According to the Minister, sex education could play a crucial role in not only prevention of HIV/AIDS but also help children in identifying and thereby preventing sexual abuse of children.

She said the Ministry would write to the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra, Kerala and any other state where such matter crop up.

Regarding the opposition being politically motivated, Ms Chowdhury said no politics should be brought into the matters relating to children who constitute 33 percent population of the country.

Children's rights and interests were above all politics, she asserted.

She said the Ministry would also write to the governments of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Asom and Delhi from where maximum number of physical and sexual abuse cases were reported in the National Study on Child Abuse: India 2007.

She said in consulations with the concerned state governments a Specialised Approach would be adopted depending on the cultural background and other specific issues.

Terming pedophilia as the worst crime against children, she said that the Integrated Child Development and Protecton Scheme being launched in the Eleventh Plan would deal with the problems. Recently many incidents of foreign tourists indulging in trafficking of children have come to light, she admitted and said that stringent measures would be taken to check it.

UNI