Vardhan clarifies on ban on sex education in schools

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday clarified that he does not propose a ban on sex education as suggested by a prominent newspaper through banner headlines.

"I am a medical professional who has embraced rationalism and I whole-heartedly support pedagogy that is scientific and culturally acceptable.

"Anything abrasive to common sensibilities and articulated as such by responsible persons should be discarded and replaced by consensually accepted learning processes," the minister, who is presently on an official visit to the United States, said.

He was reacting to a newspaper report which said that he had stated in his website that sex education in schools should be banned.

Vardhan clarified that the view expressed on the website was entirely his own and made in the context of the UPA government's 2007 decision to introduce the Adolescence Education Programme in its original form.

Even the chief ministers of UPA-ruled states had objected to it and subsequently it was modified, he said in a press statement issued by the Union health ministry.

As chief ministerial candidate of his party in the Delhi 2013 election, Vardhan said, he had full right to make his agenda for education transparent, among other subjects of governance.       

Value-based school learning processes are common in all countries and he had intentioned implementing such a format in Delhi's schools, he said.