He was referring to a Rajya Sabha committee, headed by M. Venkaiah Naidu of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), that has said the AEP was 'a cleverly used euphemism whose real objective was to impart sex education to schoolchildren and promote promiscuity'. It also disapproved of the importance given to the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) in the AEP, which was launched in 2005.

According to Mahinder C. Watsa, president of the Family Planning Association of India, young people should be involved in formulating the programme. He also said the adolescence education programme should be 'backed up with counselling and therapeutic sessions' for the youth.

Watsa suggested that a box for questions should be kept whenever the subject is taught so that the youth can ask, without feeling embarrassed, questions about sex and sexuality and educators should address the queries freely.

He said the programme should impart knowledge about 'what the young people want to know and not what we want to give them. The educators should not stick to anatomy and physiology, but be able to respond to the giggles and laughter of the youth, and answer their questions on masturbation, oral sex or the I-pill.

He also said 'one should not hard sell HIV/AIDS in the programme, but soft-sell it to make it a success'.

Earlier, the seminar, titled Expert Group Consultation on Cultural Relevance of the Adolescence Education, was addressed by Nesim Tumkaya, UNFPA representative, Warren Mellor, Unesco representative and Subhash Kuntia, joint secretary in the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Tumkaya said adolescence education was an important subject as it concerned 30 percent of the population. 'It gives voice to the youth to avoid unwanted sexual behaviour, develop their personality and help them pass the phase of transition in life, where they need guidance', he said.

The issue of making the programme 'culturally sensitive' was proving tough as there was no consensus on what is culturally sensitive, he added. 'There are too many sensitivities.'