Sex-lite instruction offered to state

NEW DELHI: Buckling under pressure exerted by Maharashtra, the Centre now plans to introduce bowdlerised sex-education textbooks for school children.

Renuka Chowdhury, minister of state for women and child development, maintained that sex education would be made mandatory in all circumstances. But she conceded that the government is ready to negotiate with the states and rework the texts.

“It is important for schoolchildren to know about the physical changes and possible abuses they can face because of that,” Chowdhury said. “It’s a changing society and we have to adjust.”

She said the government respects the objections registered by Maharashtra. “We will talk to them, but before that we have decided to change the language of the texts, and the way they have been presented with offensive pictures.”