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In a conversation with Rinku Wadhera, Sarayu Foundation Trust, and Vijaya Vishwanathan, Co-Author of 'Who is raising your children?", Infinity Foundation, answers why the United Nations' 'Comprehensive Sexuality Education' (CSE) is devious and how it is coming into India. Transcript of the excerpts, Part 3 of 3 (titles added):
Vijaya: The other intervention [for Comprehensive Sexuality Education to come into India] is through the legal department. Now the legal interventions are also pretty scary.
UNICEF recommended, based on fudged data, reduction of age of consent for sex
There is an Act called the POCSO Act. I think it's, protection of children from sexual offenses, in 2012 or something, it was passed [POCSO Act 2012]. It's essentially a child-centred act to protect children from sexual abuse. It says that a child is somebody who's below the age of 18. Now UNICEF, a United Nations organisation, partners with a local NGO called Enfold, if I remember correctly. They look at some random cases here and there, and they come up with a recommendation in a report to the Ministry of Law [of India] and say that we should bring down the age of consent for sex from 18 to 16.
Why? Because they cite some one-off cases where a 19-year-old, who's essentially an adult now, has had an affair with a 17-year-old who's considered a minor. And then, therefore, you know, these things happen. Adolescents kind of mess around, and so we should not make it like an offence.
So to the average person, you'll say that makes sort of sense. But the law already deals with these kinds of special cases in special courts.
Rinku: Juvenile courts?
Vijaya: They’re called special courts. When a 60-year-old has an improper relationship with a minor, it is dealt with in the regular courts. But if a 19-year-old is making the same offence with a 17-year-old, it's handled in a special court because they're about the same age. They're roughly peers.
So it's handled already. Handled in a different way so that the penalty is not that bad. Now these guys [UNICEF & NGO] give false data, massage the data, do all of that, and they make a recommendation.
The law commission is another body in Delhi which catches this, and they said, “No. We are very focused on protecting children, and this will lead to prostitution of children, trafficking of children and other criminal activities. So we don't want to do this”. And they put their foot down. And then there is this NCPCR, which is about child protection. They do a little bit more due diligence. And they say, “You know what? The data itself is falsified”. “Not only do we not support it, but, actually, they [UNICEF & NGO] fudged the data”.
That time, UNICEF essentially distances itself. UNICEF actually co-writes this report; it's a coauthor of that report, but it distances itself. It funds and co-writes it but then blames the NGO for it and distances itself. But UNICEF is, in fact, a partner of the Education Ministry. Despite these kinds of mischief, UNICEF is MHRD's [Ministry of Human Resources Development, the previous name of the Ministry of Education] partner in education. Anyway, the law doesn't pass.
The Law Ministry recommended the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) for all schools
We don't bring down the age of consent from 18 to 16, but the law commission also said, "But we recommend Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) overall because it will improve empowerment of women, infant mortality, and all kinds of things". They haven't gone through what CSE is. And the same thing is done by the other groups as well. So the law ministry says, “Well, we're not going to change the POCSO Act, but we recommend that all schools everywhere have Comprehensive Sexuality Education (which is even worse)”.
Raising of the marriageable age for women from 18 to 21
The second legal intervention is that they change the age of marriage for girls from 18 to 21. Nowhere in the world is it like that. Even in the US, California and all have no age above which only you can get married. If your guardians agree at 15, you can get married.
Rinku: You can vote at 18, but you cannot get married at 15.
Vijaya: So here [the marriageable age], for boys, is 21. It used to be 18. Now they made it for girls also 21.
Rinku: That's basically discouraging marriage also.
Vijaya: So you're discouraging marriage, but you're encouraging sexuality.
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Rinku: So they will be forced into these kinds of relationships just because the law is…
Vijaya: You are feeding them pornography, asking them to pursue desires, all of that. In the name of ‘women's empowerment’, ‘infant mortality’… these are the words they use.
Rinku: Child retention in school. You've mentioned the case of Rajasthan.
Vijaya: Yeah.
Rinku: But this kind of education was pushed, ostensibly, to retain girls in school.
Vijay: Right. They bait and they switch.
The allowing of abortion upto 24 weeks of pregnancy
Rinku: The third legal intervention is the gestation term for abortion. It used to be twenty weeks. It's moved to twenty-four. Above twenty weeks of gestation you cannot have an abortion because the child is becoming viable. Now at twenty-four weeks, the child is actually viable. If you take the foetus, it can live outside.
And now we have, you know, there is an MTP, some Act like that [Medical Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Act, 2021]. They've increased that. So you can have later and later term abortions when the child is actually viable.
Video of the excerpts of the conversation at: https://youtu.be/nKZbXqFvN4Q
"Who is raising your children?" is a book co-authored by Rajiv Malhotra and Vijaya Vishwanathan and was launched in India during January-February 2025.
Click to read the 1st and 2nd parts of this 3 part series: