The ‘Health and Wellness Curriculum’ initiated by the Modi government doesn’t term it sex education and uses creative ways to give exposure to children on adolescent health and puberty. Children will be taught on safe internet practices, reproductive health, and prevention of HIV, and so on under the new curriculum.
The curriculum developed by the ministries of Human Resource Development and Health and Family Welfare was launched recently. The curriculum includes sex education although it hasn’t been explicitly spelt out in the document and a separate curriculum on adolescence education has been merged with this.
The curriculum will teach things which aren’t covered in classroom textbooks and will be covered in 24 weeks. Children will be taught through comic strips, role playing, group discussions and classroom activities.
Divided into 11 modules, the curriculum includes will cover topics such as growing up healthy; emotional well-being and mental health; interpersonal relationships; values and responsible citizenship; gender equality; nutrition, health and sanitation; promotion of healthy lifestyles; prevention and management of substance misuse; reproductive health and HIV prevention; safety and security against violence and injuries; and promotion of safe use of internet, media and social media.
