Indian Church leaders want sex education to fight violence against women
January 18, 2013 - Catholic Church leaders in India are continuing to recommend
sex-education programmess in schools as a response to public outrage over rape and
exploitation of women. “Sex education is very important,” Father Anthony Charanghat,
a spokesman for Bombay archdiocese, told the Vatican’s Fides news service. He disagreed
with the city’s police chief, who said that sex-education programs could aggravate
India’s problems, noting that violence against women is higher in countries that have
sex-education programmes in the school curriculum. Father Charanghat countered that
a proper sex-education programme would decrease the danger of violence against women.
Such a program, he said, “has to be centered on the value of the body and on respect
for every individual.” He said Bombay archdiocese has promoted sex-education programmes.