Resources for all concerned with culture of authoritarianism in society, banalisation of communalism, (also chauvinism, parochialism and identity politics) rise of the far right in India (and with occasional information on other countries of South Asia and beyond)
Partisan orders of Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences
Statement issued by Binoy Viswam, Leader of CPI Parliamentary Group & Secretary,
National Council
It is deeply unfortunate that even during a pandemic that has claimed over 3 lakh lives
and infected more than 2.26 crore people in India, the Central Government is
engaging in partisan behaviour and continuing to promote its narrow self-interests. On
12th may 2021, the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences, an
autonomous body under the Ministry of Ayush, directed State & District authorities to
disturb Ayush-64 through a private organisation, Sewa Bharti, that is closely related to
the RSS. The order appears to make Sewa Bharti, the sole NGO collaborating with the
Government over the project to distribute and document the use of Ayush-64 to
asymptomatic and mild to moderate Covid-19 patients.
Beyond the tirelessly engaged Government officials and functionaries, the Covid-19
pandemic has seen a wide array of civil society organisations, citizens collectives and
individuals come forward to provide assistance to the Government in combating the
pandemic. These organisations and individuals have shown exemplary courage and
service to the nation as they have sacrificed their own lives and provided relief in
circumstances where even the Government has failed to do so. However, at no point
has the Government appointed a single organisation to collaborate with it on a Covid
related project across the entire country. It is therefore difficult to comprehend as to
why such special treatment has been given to Sewa Bharti, beyond its obvious
connections to the RSS and the Central Government’s desire to gain political mileage
from the same.
At a time when the nation requires assistance from all quarters, it is unacceptable that
one organisation, with clear political connections, is being given sole space to
collaborate with the Government on vital projects such as this. I, therefore, call upon
the Minister of Ayush to withdraw the above mentioned order and allow more
organisations to collaborate with the Government on this project.
24th May 2021
Binoy Viswam
Member, Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change
Member, Consultative Committee on Environment, Forest and Climate Change
Already rampant communal virus in India is gleefully piggy-back riding on coronavirus
The Tablighi
Jamaat is by no means the only body culpable of gross neglect and
irresponsible conduct in the current crisis. But it must account for its
own idiotic role in the escalation of the pandemic.
Written by Javed Anand
|
Updated: April 4, 2020 8:56:19 am
Parts of Nizamuddin West were cordoned off after six new cases were traced to the area. (Express Photo by Anil Sharma)
Until the other day, not many outside the Muslim community had heard of an organisation named the Tablighi Jamaat.
Little did people know about this century-old India-born body which,
today, is the largest apolitical, Islamic revivalist global movement.
Notwithstanding this, a vast majority of Muslims ridicule and dismiss
this “nutcase” movement as good-for-nothing. “Woh sirf zameen ke neeche aur aasman ke upar waali zindagi ki baat karte hain” (They only talk of life in the grave and in the Hereafter).
Today, the Jamaat has, virtually overnight, earned for itself the ill-repute of being the “largest known” COVID-19
source in South and South-East Asia. In India, many participants at an
international gathering of around 4,000 Jamaatis at the Tabligh’s global
headquarters — Nizamuddin Markaz — in Delhi held from March 13 to March
15 have carried back the coronavirus
with them to distant corners of the country. An earlier international
gathering of over 16,000 participants in Malaysia in February led to the
transmission of the COVID-19 disease to several countries, including
neighbouring Thailand and distant Brunei. In Pakistan, the Jamaat’s
proposed assembly in March of 1,50,000 participants near Lahore was
cancelled at the last minute. But by then, delegates from across the
world had already landed at the venue, living in close proximity to one
another. Following a screening of 35 members at their headquarters in
Raiwind, 27 of the Tablighis tested positive for coronavirus.
On March 30, the Delhi government cordoned off the entire Nizamuddin
locality once it became known that a startlingly high number of Covid
cases detected across India until now were traceable to the meet in the
national capital. Two days later, a total of 2,346 persons still
residing at the Markaz were evacuated; 536 were admitted to hospital and
1,810 quarantined. An FIR has been filed against the Amir (chief) of
the Jamaat, Maulana Muhammad Saad Kandhalawi, and several others for
disregarding several directives of the Delhi government under the
Epidemic Diseases Act prohibiting the gathering of more than 200
persons. Pleading not guilty, the Jamaat claims non-response from the
authorities to its repeated pleas for help with transport to disperse
those “stranded” at the Markaz (centre). Only an impartial probe can
establish the role of the Jamaat as also the government authorities in
the build-up of this hotspot within shouting distance of the Nizamuddin
police station.
The Jamaat is by no means the only body culpable of gross neglect and
irresponsible conduct in the current crisis. But it must account for
its own idiotic role in the escalation of the pandemic.
On January 30, a full six weeks before the mid-March meet in Delhi, the
World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared a global health emergency.
By mid-February, the coronavirus had surfaced in a number of south-east
Asian countries. In the fast deteriorating scenario, why did the Jamaat
leadership not cancel the event which included participants from
COVID-19 affected countries?
No less disturbing is the audio-tape reportedly containing a message
to his flock from Maulana Saad: “Don’t pay heed if they ask us to lock
down mosques”; “There is no better place to die than a mosque”; “Allah
is punishing us for abandoning mosques”; “Won’t pay heed if even doctors
advise to not pray in mosques”. That this may not be a doctored audio
tape is indicated by the fact that similar shocking sentiments have been
expressed by the maulana’s counterparts from across the Wagah.
Meanwhile, a second audio tape, also purportedly of the maulana, has
surfaced, advising fellow Tablighis thus: “I am in self-quarantine in
Delhi as advised by the doctors and appeal to all Jamaat members
wherever they are in the country to follow the directives of the law”.
The message warns that the coronavirus is an expression of Allah’s wrath
because of the sins of us human beings.
Such may be the views of the Tablighi Jamaat,
but by no means are they the consensus among Muslims. On March 20,
Saudi Arabia suspended congregational prayers at Mecca and Medina.
Taking their cue from a saying of the Prophet, similar restrictions have
been placed on mosques and other holy places elsewhere in the Arab
world as also in the self-proclaimed Islamic Republic of Iran. In India,
the doors of mosques across India have remained shut since the national
lockdown just as those of temples, churches and gurdwaras.
Yet, even as the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has warned
that the world faces the most challenging crisis since World War II, the
already rampant communal virus in India is gleefully piggy-riding on
the novel coronavirus. The Tabligh’s highly irresponsible words and
deeds are “fresh proof” to Hindutva that “Muslims are like that only”.
To their credit, the chief ministers of Kerala and West Bengal, Pinarayi Vijayan and Mamata Banerjee
respectively, have been quick to caution against “sensationalising
coronavirus” by giving it a communal complexion. Regretting that social
media was being used for a “communal harvest” over COVID-19, Vijayan
observed: “Coronavirus does not infect anyone looking at religion. What
is important is that we stay together and remain vigilant. We should
remember the exemplary action of all sections of society who have
abandoned public gatherings at the behest of the government.”
In this moment of grave national and international crisis, such
sagacious words should, above all, have come from the prime minister.
But that, sadly, seems most unlikely. What we have, instead, are
warnings from BJP
leaders of “Islamic insurrection” and “corona jihad”. The Jamaat episode
has also come in handy to the country’s lapdog media. It can now
gleefully scapegoat Muslims, help divert public attention from the
colossal mishandling of the crisis by the authorities. If the Jamaat
leaders deserve an FIR what about the prime minister who with his
thoughtless four-hour countdown for a national lockdown triggered a
stampede across urban India (social distancing?) and a “reverse migration” that reminded some people of Partition times?
The need of the hour is national unity and international solidarity,
not hate-driven divisive politics. Is that too much to expect from the
BJP, the Sangh Parivar and its servile media? This article first appeared in print edition on April 3
under the title “Tablighis, not Muslims”. The writer is convenor, Indian
Muslims for Secular Democracy, and co-editor, Sabrang India online
Why secular liberals are wrong about Nizamuddin
The Jamaat was criminal in its behaviour. Don’t defend it just because Hindutva extremists are communalising the episode
analysisUpdated: Apr 02, 2020 13:51 IST
At a time when millions of Indians are making
sacrifices to fight the coronavirus, this kind of behaviour is not just
criminal, it amounts to attempted murder.(Biplov Bhuyan/HT PHOTO)
As the full scale of the damage to public health caused by the
Tablighi Jamaat meeting — and its aftermath — in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area
emerges, there are some things we can be clear about.
One of them
is that attempts by Hindutva communalists to try and turn this into a
Hindu-Muslim issue are despicable. It is shameful that TV channels allow
terms like bio-jihad to be used or let guests suggest that those who
visited the Markaz Nizamuddin were out to poison Hindus.
In fact,
the vast majority of those who were infected were Muslim. So, far from
being a jihad against Hindus, this an act that, so far at least, has
risked more Muslim lives.
The second thing we can be certain of is
that various authorities are not blameless. There appears to have been
laxness in granting visas. The Delhi Police, who have a station located
next to the Markaz, failed to clear the building. The police have
released a video of an officer speaking the leaders of the Markaz and
asking them to vacate the complex. So not only were the police aware of
the situation but they did not act even after the Jamaat leaders ignored
their warning.
The
police video also contains clear references to Delhi Administration
officials which suggests that even the state government failed to act.
This may not be the best time to fix the blame but there can be no doubt that there is lots of blame to go around.
Equally,
it is as clear that the Jamaat leaders behaved with extreme
irresponsibility, using religion to encourage people to stay inside the
building and to ignore health warnings. The videos and audiotapes that
have now been discovered show Jamaat clerics saying things like “Yes
there is a virus. But 70,000 angels are with me and if they can’t save
me, who will? This is the time for more such gatherings.” A voice,
believed to be that of Maulana Saad, is heard saying, “This is a plan to
end amity between Muslims, to alienate them from each other.”
These
are not videos recorded in secret as part of some sting. The Jamaat
actually put them up on its YouTube channel and advised people that
social distancing was an elaborate conspiracy against Muslims.
At a
time when millions of Indians are making sacrifices to fight the
coronavirus, this kind of behaviour is not just criminal, it amounts to
attempted murder.
All this seems clear cut enough. So, why is there a problem?
Well, because of what seems like a knee-jerk reaction from sections of the secular establishment.
I
cannot believe that any sensible person — Hindu or Muslim, secular or
communal — can approve of the primitive fundamentalism of the Jamaat, an
orthodox group that would take Islam back several centuries to fulfil
its objectives.
And yet, such is the nature of our political
dialogue that many secular liberals believe they must respond vigorously
to everything that Hindu communalists say. So, if Hindutva extremists
and trolls are using terms like jihad and using the incident to attack
all Muslims, then the answer must be to find some way to defend the
Jamaat.
And so, we have had the sad and pathetic spectacle of
various people who should know better trying every trick in the book to
find excuses for the Jamaat.
All of Wednesday, we heard the
excuses. There was, first of all, the constant blaming of the
authorities. “Why didn’t the police break up the gathering?” “The IB was
keeping a watch on the Markaz: why did it allow the foreigners who had
attended to travel around India?” And so on.
There are valid questions but they, in no way, lessen the horror of what the Jammat did.
A murderer is no less responsible for his actions because an inept police force failed to capture him in time.
To
point to the mistakes of others to suggest that the Jamaat is only one
of many guilty parties is like saying that the Holocaust was only partly
Adolf Hitler’s fault because the global community could have stopped
him earlier but did not.
When their explanations fail to hold,
some secularists then switch to a tactic that is often associated with
their ideological opponents on the right — whataboutery.
Ok, they
say, if this was wrong, then why was it okay for parliament to remain in
session even when social distancing was the norm? What about Shivraj
Singh Chauhan’s victory celebrations in Bhopal when legislators hugged
each other despite the risk of coronavirus infection? Why was it okay
for Yogi Adityanath to refuse to call off Ram Navmi celebrations till
the very end? Or even, what about the migrant exodus after the lockdown
where there was no physical distancing?
There are two answers to the whataboutery.
The first is that
not only were all of these things wrong, they were widely criticized and
condemned at the time — by many people, including those members of the
secular establishment who are now using them to offer tactical cover to
the Jamaat.
The second answer is that it does not matter what
else happened. You cannot explain away the 2020 Delhi riots by saying
that the 1984 riots were worse. All riots are bad and should be
condemned. So what if legislators hugged each other at Shivraj Chauhan’s
victory celebrations? How does it make the behaviour of the Jamaat any
less criminal?
The problem with knee jerk secularism is that it
can sometimes offer up excuses for the indefensible. We think we are
defending the Muslim community from attacks by bigots.
In fact, we are damaging Indian secularism.
Each
time secularists take a stand that runs totally counter to morality or
even to common sense, we damage the liberal idea of India. Yes,
communalists will play the Hindu-Muslim game. But we must never fall
into the trap of doing the same thing.
We must condemn disgraceful
and criminal behaviour wherever we see it. Once we start defending
people only because they belong to a particular religion, we are no
better than the religious bigots on the other side.
It makes no
sense to say, as some are now claiming, that the incident had nothing to
do with religion. This was a religious gathering. And the reasons for
the behaviour of the congregation were explicitly religious — they were
told that 70,000 angels would protect them.
Secularism does not
mean that you rush to the defence to every Muslim, no matter what he or
she has done. It means that you fight against all religious bigots and
their primitive mindset that ignores science and promotes religious
mumbo-jumbo.
The issue with the Jamaat gathering is not only that
it endangered the lives of so many people. It is that it did so in the
name of religion. In the process, it strengthened the communal Hindu
propaganda that Muslims are fundamentalists who do not regard themselves
as subject to Indian laws.
Of course, this is complete nonsense.
The average Muslim is as sensible and as patriotic as the average Hindu.
Many influential Muslims have condemned the Jamaat.
But when
secularists feel obliged to find excuses for Muslim bigots, they obscure
this reality. If India is to move forward, then all of us should unite
to fight bigots, no matter whether they are Hindu or Muslim.
Find excuses for one or the other and the battle is already lost. The views expressed are personal
‘Doctors prescribing non-ayurvedic medicines are anti-national’
TNN | Apr 30, 2016, 10.52 PM IST
Kolhapur: AYUSH minister Shripad Yesso Naik on Saturday said doctors prescribing non-ayurvedic medicines are "anti-nationals".
"Some ayurveda practitioners have told me that doctors prescribing allopathy medicines often advise patients not to opt for ayurveda. Such doctors are anti-nationals," said Naik, who was in the city for the inauguration of an ayurveda research centre.
"Ayurveda is one of the oldest medical systems in the world and we should be proud of it. How can anyone oppose ayurveda when the whole world is showing interest in it and trying to find remedies of diseases that modern medical science cannot?" Naik said.
"Kolhapur is home to many plant species with medicinal properties. Our ministry will explore the potential of these plants. There is a need for research on the flora in this region," he added.
On the syllabus and teaching methods of ayurveda, the minister said, "We will ensure that the medium of education for ayurveda students is Sanskrit. All literature related to ayurveda are in Sanskrit."
Naik said the ministry of yoga and traditional medicine will sign a memorandum of understanding with the World Health Organisation in June to make ayurveda popular across the world. "A recognition on such an international platform will help propagate ayurveda across the world. We are also trying to find ways to tackle various types of cancers through ayurveda," the AYUSH minister said.
The department of AYUSH focuses on development of education and research in ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddha and homeopathy systems.
Kolhapur: Union minister for yoga and traditional medicines Shripad Yesso Naik on Saturday said doctors prescribing non-ayurvedic medicines are "anti-nationals".
"Some ayurvedic practitioners have told me that doctors prescribing allopathic medicines advise patients not to opt for ayurveda. Such doctors are anti-nationals," he said, while addressing the inauguration ceremony of an ayurveda research centre here.
"Ayurveda is one of the oldest medical systems in the world and we should be proud of it as it has been practised since anctient times. How can anyone oppose it when the whole world is showing interest in ayurveda and trying to find remedies of diseases that even modern medical science cannot discover?" Naik asked.
"Kolhapur is home to several plant species with medicinal properties. Our ministry will explore the potential of these plants. There is a need for research on the flora in this region," he said.
On the syllabus and teaching methods of ayurveda, the minister said, "We will ensure that the medium of education for ayurveda students will be Sanskrit. All literature related to ayurveda are in Sanskrit."
Naik said the ministry of yoga and traditional medicine will sign a memorandum of understanding with the World Health Organisation in June to make ayurveda popular across the world.
"A recognition on such an international platform will help propagate ayurveda across the world. We are also trying to find ways to tackle various types of cancers through ayurveda," he said.
The department of AYUSH focuses attention to development of education and research in Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy systems.
Extremists Are Extremists
They Do Not Understand the Language of Reason and Peace
by Asghar Ali Engineer
Recently we read with great pain that the extremists in Pakistan killed several women who were active in administering the polio dose to the children. They think it is an international conspiracy to reduce the population of Muslims in the world as the polio dose makes a person impotent. Some Muslims and Imams of mosques in India too thought likewise and asked Muslims in their Friday sermons not to allow social workers to administer the polio dose to their children.
But in India it was just an appeal, no one was physically harmed, much less killed. In Pakistan these extremists believe in the culture of violence and for them the only solution for defying their orders is to be shot dead. Malala was shot as she did not listen to the Taliban and stop advo-cating education for girls. Those who kill others in the name of Islam are far from being Muslims, let alone pious Muslims. In order to be a pious Muslim one has to be just. The Qur’an says: “Do justice, it is closest to piety.” (5:8)
How can one claim to observe the norms of justice by killing others? Justice is something most difficult to carry out, even for murder we require at least two pious and honest witnesses and to prove rape or fornication we need four such witnesses. One has to make sure, according to the Shari’ah law, that before accepting a witness the witness is honest and pious. Witnessing cannot be accepted from anyone. And killing someone is permitted only in certain specific cases like murder and there too, if it is not qatl-e-‘amad (deliberate and coldblooded murder) Allah prefers pardoning with or without compensation.
To kill someone without justification is a great sin. The Qur’an says that “whoever kills a person unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as though he has killed the whole humanity. And whoever saves a life, it is as if he has saved the whole humanity.” (5:32) This is a very important statement of the Holy Book. Life is sacred and is not cheap that anyone can kill any other person without any reason or rhyme. There has to be strong justification for taking anyone’s life. If life could be taken by anyone and at any time the whole humanity would be wiped out in course of time.
Normally weapons should be used for protecting and not taking life. And which rule of the Shari’ah has prescribed that administering polio should be punished with death? That cure did not exist in those days. The orthodox people greatly resist any change in the Shari’ah law even with proper justification but do not hesitate to change the Shari’ah law or innovate one through false reasoning when it suits their interests. This is what killing women adminis-tering polio amounts to. It is pure innovation with false justification.
These very extremists would not mind producing and selling drugs through smuggling to buy weapons and destroy thousands of young lives. All intoxicants are strictly prohibited in Islam, particularly liquor and drugs; and yet the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan are known to be producing, smuggling drugs and buying weapons. I have attended anti-drug conferences in Afghanistan and know how thousands of people are suffering because the Taliban want weapons. Even many women are addicted to drugs in Afghanistan. So much for the Islam of the Taliban.
Also, whoever said that the polio dose makes men impotent? Have they done any research on that? Or they believe only in hearsay? To believe in something without confirming its truth is highly condemned by the Qur’an. The Qur’an calls it zann (suspicion, guess). See the Qur’anic verses 48:9, 48:12, 49:12, 53:23 etc. how the Qur’an condemns zann. In some cases, it says it is even sin, in some cases it is our personal desire and has nothing to do with truth and the Qur’an advises the believers to avoid zann as much as they can.
And as for the Taliban, who are killing those administering the polio dose, it is mere zann and has nothing to do with the objective reality. And if they have confirmed its truth let them produce the proof. Or do they want these young children born to live as polio-affected people paralysed for their whole life? Life is a beautiful gift from the Allah. Do they want this beautiful gift to become an affliction for these young ones? That too on mere suspicion or guess?
Also, this campaign has been launched by the UNO to eliminate this curse from our earth and make our lives healthier and happier. It is far from aimed at Muslims. Polio doses are being administered throughout the world. The entire humanity is benefiting from it and particularly in Africa and Asia where most of the poor of the world live. It appears to be a conspiracy of the Taliban to paralyse the coming generation of Muslims so that they can live at their mercy and through their charity!
There is so much emphasis in the Qur’an and hadith on knowledge (‘ilm) and instead of being forerunners of science and scientific attitude the Muslim extremists are being so ignorant and superstitious! And they want to keep Muslims in the darkness of ignorance through sheer power of the gun. Muslims are in fact duty- bound to eliminate ignorance and usher in an era of enlightenment. But the Taliban do not want modern education, especially for women, do not want modern medicines and do not want freedom. Instead they are spreading the gun culture. Is this Islam? We have to encourage the young Muslims to fight this menace of the Taliban as it is no less a curse than polio.
Dr Asghar Ali Engineer, who runs the Centre for the Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS), Mumbai, is the patron of the All India Secular Forum set up in 2002 when the Gujarat pogrom in particular and the communal forces in general were threatening the secular fabric of society; the Forum had rejected the Communal Violence Bill drafted by the Ministry of Home Affairs as it gave the police draconian powers to handle communal disturbances without any accountability, and organised a campaign for an alternative legislation. He won along with Swami Agnivesh the Right to Livelihood Award in 2004 in recognition of his steadfast commitment to promote the values of coexistence and tolerance.
It is alarming that crucial decisions regarding something as fundamental to human health and happiness as sexuality are taken by leaders of the nation whose thinking on the matter is a dangerous mix of bigotry and ignorance. The Committee on Petitions has recommended that there should be no sex education in schools since this promotes promiscuity and since India’s “social and cultural ethos are (sic) such that sex education has absolutely no place in it”. Headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Venkaiah Naidu, the committee comprises nine Rajya Sabha members from the entire party-political spectrum, and has only one woman in it. The committee’s outrage is directed against the human resource development ministry’s Adult Education Programme. Launched in 2005 and backed by the National AIDS Control Organization, the AEP had focused on safer sex, together with adolescent physical and mental development, for the 14-18 age group. Not only was the committee “highly embarrassed” by the HRD ministry’s PowerPoint presentation on this curriculum, but it has also recommended for this age group an alternative curriculum based on the lives and teachings of saints, spiritual leaders, freedom fighters and national heroes. This would endorse “national ideals and values” and “neutralize the impact of cultural invasion from various sources” with the help of naturopathy, Ayurveda, Unani, yoga and, of course, moral education.
Such a combination of conservatism, chauvinism and sheer irrationality is disconcerting for several reasons. First, emanating from the highest levels of the polity and uniting a diversity of political positions, it shows the extent to which the lives and bodies of some of the most vulnerable members of society remain in the control of the limited understanding and unlimited powers of a few. A blinkered and almost mythological understanding of the lives and sexuality of growing children, generalized to the point of absurdity, underpins such a mindset. The children themselves, as well as the adults who are responsible for their well-being, remain entirely deprived of agency in the making of these decisions and policies.
Finally, the assumptions on which this mindset is founded, and the terms in which they are publicly expressed, are equally frightening. The committee upholds that pre-marital sexual exploration, together with sex outside marriage, is “immoral, unethical and unhealthy”; consensual sex before the age of 16 “amounts to rape”; sex education promotes abusive behaviour in school, among students as well as between teacher and student, and is detrimental to the stability of the family. Perhaps the only hope lies in the fact that these are just nine shockingly regressive individuals trying to control the robustness of millions of sensible Indians.
RSS prevails, C’garh too bans sex course Nitin Mahajan Posted online: Tuesday, April 03, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print Email Schools: Both states face opposition to Adolescent Education Programme over ‘objectionable material’ being used
RAIPUR, APRIL 2 : The Chhattisgarh government has decided to end its Adolescence Education Programme. Days after similar steps were initiated by neighbouring Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and two years after it introduced the programme in Classes IX and XI, the Raman Singh government asked the Chhattisgarh State Council for Educational Research and Training to immediately stop sex education in state schools, while instructing the SCERT to find ways “compatible with Indian culture” to create AIDS awareness among students.
The decision to abandon sex education in schools was taken after senior RSS functionaries objected to the “explicit material” being used in the Adolescent Education Programme, forcing the Chief Minister to direct SCERT to remove “objectionable” material and photographs which “do not have a place in Indian culture”.
Senior SCERT officials involved in the development and implementation of the programme had tried to convince the Chief Minister about the merits of the programme, urging him not to abandon it. But Raman bowed to the RSS’s demands. “The SCERT has been told to remove graphic anatomical pictures from the kit meant for teachers,” an official, baffled by the government’s decision, said.
Incidentally the step to remove sex education from school curriculum comes even as the RSS lobby, which has been keen to remodel the education system, managed to include yoga in the state school curriculum recently.
Speaking to The Indian Express, SCERT Director Nand Kumar confirmed that the government had sought “remodelling” of the Adolescence Education Programme. “We have been asked to remove photographs which were deemed too explicit and replace these with sketches and find other ways to create AIDS awareness,” he said.
The Chief Minister has also asked the SCERT to make a presentation of the remodelled programme, after which a decision on the future of the programme would be taken.
The programme was introduced in the state two years back and under it, Classes IX, X and XI students were to be imparted sex education and told about AIDS. About 725 teachers were provided training by the National AIDS Control Organisation and Unicef for making children aware about AIDS, in a project which cost Rs 25 lakh and had been implemented in a majority of districts in the state.
The government’s move has been severely criticised by people behind the project. “Scrapping the programme is not the solution. We need to find ways in which a student can be taught about AIDS and given sex education that does not affect the cultural sensitivity prevalent in an area,” Joint Secretary, Council Of Boards of Secondary Education (COBSE), Puran Chand said.
He pointed out that a few months ago COBSE, a consultative and apex body of education boards in the country, had launched a package on adolescent education and requested each state government to implement it. “However, due to non-cooperation from various states we have not been able to integrate sex education in the syllabus,” he added, stating that only 17 of the member 41 boards had replied positively to COBSE's initiative.
Parts of Nizamuddin West were cordoned off after six new cases were traced to the area. (Express Photo by Anil Sharma)
