Despite conservative attitudes in India, most girls begin sexual activity during adolescence. Though this is often inside of marriage.
Despite conservative attitudes in India, most girls begin sexual activity during adolescence. Though this is often inside of marriage, about 10% of girls in India engage in premarital sex.
These sexual encounters are often unplanned and unsafe, leading to unwanted pregnancies. A World Bank report on reproductive health — Sparing Lives: Better Reproductive Health for Poor Women in South Asia — has put Indian women at grave risk of death at the time of childbirth.
It said that the median age for marriage in India was still below the legal age of marriage and almost double the number of poor girls, aged 15-19 years, are married off compared to the rich.
Pregnancy deaths are a major reason for the skewed male-female sex ratio in India where many women, from adolescents to those in their prime, bear unwanted children because of poor access to contraception.
Throughout South Asia, unsafe abortion is unacceptably high, especially in the private sector.
Many undergo abortion at great risk to their lives or health: at least 4 million unsafe abortions take place in South Asia, causing 10-20% of the region’s maternal deaths.
Contraceptive use among the poorest quintile of women ranges from 40-50% in rural India to 75% in urban India. Overall ‘unmet need’ for family planning is highest in Nepal and Pakistan (24-28%), but substantial even in Sri Lanka (11%).
Among the poorest women, it ranges from 23% to 87%.
The report highlighted that while India has made positive strides in areas of fertility and infant mortality, the maternal mortality ratio (MMR), immunisation coverage and malnutrition remain areas of concern.
South Asia accounts for half of all low birth weight babies in the world. Over 10% of infants die due to this or other preventable causes. Child malnutrition is appallingly high on average, and two to three times higher among the poorest quintile of children than the rich in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Female child mortality remains 25-50% higher than male child mortality in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, clearly indicating that adolescents and poor women have been highly neglected by the health services.
Coverage and equity in child immunisation are most disappointing.
Compared to Sri Lanka’s 94%, coverage in Bangladesh and Nepal is 65%, Pakistan 53%, and India only 43%. However, Sri Lanka and the two Indian states — Kerala and Tamil Nadu — have shown that better and more equitable reproductive health outcomes can be achieved in the region, the report said.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}