2007年VOA标准英语-School Sex Education Program Provokes Emotional

By Anjana Pasricha
New Delhi
01 August 2007

Several Indian states have suspended a sex education program designed for school students by a government body fighting to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS. The program has stirred an emotional dispute, between those who say it will reduce the spread of HIV by promoting safer sex, and those who say it will ruin Indian culture by corrupting² young minds. Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi.

activist3 reads 'safe-sex' booklet (file photo)" hspace="2" src="/upimg/allimg/070804/0924030.jpg" width="162" vspace="2" border="0" />

Indian activist reads 'safe-sex' booklet (File)

More than one-third of new HIV infections in India are being reported in the age group of 15 to 29. This fact has led people involved in combating the spread of the virus to conclude that Indian teenagers and young people are ill-informed about safe sex practices.

So the National AIDS Control Organization and the Education Ministry⁴ designed a sex education program to be taught to high school students, those aged⁵ about 15 to 17, across the country.

The designers hoped the program would become a major tool in preventing new HIV infections.

But the project has run into rough weather in a country where the word "sex" is still largely taboo⁶. The educational authorities themselves gave an indication of the sensitivity surrounding the word, by calling the project an "Adolescence⁷ Education Program."

Nevertheless, in recent months, six states have thrown out the program, after noisy protests by lawmakers who say it will corrupt¹ young minds.

They include people like Shobha Phadanvis, a legislator from the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party in the western state of Maharashtra. She helped lead the charge in her state against the program.

Phadanvis says, We are Indians, and the new sex education program simply has no place in our culture. Sex is only for married people, so students should not be taught about sexual relations between a man and a woman. She says such a program will encourage young people to stop studying, and indulge openly in sex.

Besides Maharashtra, the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Karnataka have banned the program. These include some of India's largest and most progressive states - and regions with a high incidence of HIV/AIDS. But state governments are standing⁸ firm. They have termed the program "disgraceful," and say it will devalue Indian culture and values.

The chorus of protests is steadily⁹ gaining momentum¹⁰. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, schoolteachers have protested against the program by burning copies of the new syllabus¹¹. Many parents have also expressed opposition¹² during heated public debates.

"We send our small children to school to get moral values and education, but not sex education," one parent said.

As the debate becomes sharper, the government has promised to take a second look at the content of the program.

But proponents¹³ of sex education are dismayed. They say such conservative ideas have little place in a modernizing¹⁴ country where attitudes toward sex are changing rapidly. They point to surveys showing that for a generation of Indians exposed to television and the Internet, casual sex or sex outside marriage is no longer taboo.

The head of the National AIDS Control Organization, Sujata Rao, has argued at various public forums¹⁵ that the issue is not cultural sensibilities, but preventing the spread of a potentially fatal infection.

"We are talking about saving lives…That should be at the back of it, and not talk about ideological¹⁶ considerations. It is saving lives," she said.

The country coordinator¹⁷ of UNAIDS in India, Denis Broun, says he understands that a sex education program in schools is a sensitive subject, but he argues that removing it from the curriculum is not the right answer.

"It has to be culturally specific, but it has to be there, because on the whole, parents in India do not talk about sex, but the whole society, advertisements, films, Internet, speaks very loudly about sex," he said. "If the school does not take care of good sex education, then it will happen in a manner you cannot control in any way, and which is probably not culturally adapted, not adapted to the needs of the children."

Cultural arguments aside, India has reason to want its youth to know about safe sex. The country is already grappling with two to three million cases of HIV/AIDS. In addition, lack of information about the transmission of the virus could put at risk the world's largest population of young people. India has 500 million citizens under the age of 25 years.

1 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

2 corrupting   

（使）败坏( corrupt的现在分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏

参考例句：

• It would be corrupting discipline to leave him unpunished. 不惩治他会败坏风纪。
• It would be corrupting military discipline to leave him unpunished. 不惩治他会败坏军纪。

3 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

4 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

5 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

6 taboo   

n.禁忌，禁止接近，禁止使用；adj.禁忌的；v.禁忌，禁制，禁止

参考例句：

• The rude words are taboo in ordinary conversation.这些粗野的字眼在日常谈话中是禁忌的。
• Is there a taboo against sex before marriage in your society?在你们的社会里，婚前的性行为犯禁吗？

7 adolescence   

n.青春期，青少年

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the process of going from childhood to maturity.青春期是从少年到成年的过渡期。
• The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。

8 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

9 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

10 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

11 syllabus   

n.教学大纲，课程大纲

参考例句：

• Have you got next year's syllabus?你拿到明年的教学大纲了吗？
• We must try to diversify the syllabus to attract more students.我们应该使教学大纲内容多样化，可以多吸引学生。

12 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

13 proponents   

n.（某事业、理论等的）支持者，拥护者( proponent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Reviewing courts were among the most active proponents of hybrid rulemaking procedures. 复审法院是最积极的混合型规则制定程序的建议者。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• Proponents of such opinions were arrested as 'traitors. ' 提倡这种主张的人马上作为“卖国贼”逮捕起来。 来自辞典例句

14 modernizing   

使现代化，使适应现代需要( modernize的现在分词 )； 现代化，使用现代方法

参考例句：

• Modernizing a business to increase its profitability and competitiveness is a complicated affair. 使企业现代化，从而达到增加利润，增强竞争力的目的，是一件复杂的事情。
• The young engineer had a large share in modernizing the factory. 这位年轻工程师在工厂现代化的过程中尽了很大的“力”。

15 forums   

讨论会； 座谈会； 广播专题讲话节目； 集会的公共场所( forum的名词复数 )； 论坛，讨论会，专题讨论节目； 法庭

参考例句：

• A few of the forums were being closely monitored by the administrators. 有些论坛被管理员严密监控。
• It can cast a dark cloud over these forums. 它将是的论坛上空布满乌云。

16 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

17 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？