The Tamil Nadu government today informed the Madras High Court that sex education was not being imparted in schools as there would be resistance from the public.
Assistant Inspector General Maheswaran submitted an affidavit on behalf of the home secretary and the director general of police in response to a series of questions raised by Justice N Kirubakaran to trace the reasons for the rise in sexual offences against women and children.
The court had asked the government whether steps were taken to introduce 'age appropriate sex education' in school curriculum to educate students and clear their doubts or any wrong notions they might have, as per the directions of the high court issued in 2015.
Responding to the query, the authorities said sex education was not imparted as there would be resistance from the public.
Instead students were sensitised through 'Life Skill Education Programme' (LSEP) and 'National Population Education Programme' (NPEP) through which HIV/AIDS awareness training were imparted, it was submitted.
On other queries, the government submitted that through a government order on December 14, 2012, instillation of CCTV cameras was made mandatory in all public, commercial establishments and places of large public gatherings.
The facility was installed in over 87,743 of such buildings, it said.
On appointing trained counsellors/psychologists in every school, the government said, "Student mobile counselling centres have been established in 10 zones covering all the 32 districts, equipped with appropriate equipment."
In 2014-15, these counsellors visited 1,834 schools across the state and provided counselling to 3, 47,875 students, it said.
Similarly, in 2015-16 need-based counselling was provided to 3, 83,117 students and to 2,31,542 children in 2016-17.
The case was likely to come up for hearing tomorrow.
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