Mumbai : The BMC is all set to include sex education in the curriculum for Class 9 civic school students from the next academic year.
The Medical officer (schools) and the Mumbai Districts AIDS control society will be in charge of planning the syllabus for this module. The BMC will take separate sessions for adolescent girls and boys. These sessions will inform students about puberty and how to deal with the changes they encounter at that age.
The BMC administration took this decision after Shiv Sena corporator Sheetal Mhatre introduced a point of order in one of the meetings of BMC’s education committee asking the civic body to introduce sex education in schools.
Mhatre stated that the incidences of abortion among girls under the age of 15 have increased. Most of these girls are found to be from families below poverty line. These kids are already exposed to a lot of information through the Internet, so schools must provide access to this knowledge in a thoroughly planned manner, she said.
In its reply, the administration assured that the BMC already organises sessions about personal hygiene. It also stated that it conducts regular health checkups for students of classes 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9. The BMC sends teams comprising a medical official, a doctor and a peon to every school to organise health camps every year.
It also organises sessions for school-going girls to create awareness about menstruation cycle and for both girls and boys on AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
The administration has said that the new programme will comprise modules on how to identify a right touch from a wrong one to realise if a person is making sexual advances, and also about how to handle such situations.
