New Delhi - People opposing sex education in India are hypocrites, a federal minister said Monday referring to some local governments' refusal to implement a federal education module developed in the face of HIV/AIDS. "We have a one billion population and we don't want to talk about sex," Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury said while launching the National Women Forum, the women's wing of NGO Indian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in New Delhi.
India has an estimated 2 to 3 million people living with HIV/AIDS, about 40 per cent of whom are women.
Chowdhury said those opposing the education module for schoolchildren developed by the National AIDS Control Organization with the help of NGOs were indulging in posturing and moral hypocrisy.
"There is no harm in taking a second opinion about the module. But we want the message loud and clear for senior secondary students to understand. There should be no shadow boxing about HIV/AIDS," Naco director general Sujatha Rao said.
Chowdhury also used the occasion, where network groups from 22 states were present, to push the government's campaign for the use of condoms for safe sex.
Women, Chowdhury said, should not be embarrassed about keeping condoms. "Men cannot be trusted. A woman should not feel shy about keeping condoms. She is equally responsible for her health and she should be prepared for any sort of eventuality. Women are always more vulnerable," she said.
India recently announced a 2.9 billion-dollar plan in a five-year programme to combat HIV/AIDS over the next five years.
