Rural adolescent-friendly clinics get more sexual abuse cases

The state government has set up 543 adolescent-friendly health clinics (AFHCs) across 34 districts of Maharashtra that aim to counsel adolescents. It was found in the counselling sessions that adolescents are opening up more about stress, depression, sexual abuse, and mental health.

A Right To Information (RTI) data given by the Department of Health and Family Welfare showed the AFHCs in the rural regions of the state have received more cases of stress and mental health problems.

As per the data, in three years, Nanded has the highest number of adolescents counseled for various reason, followed by Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, and Nashik.

Chandrapur and Nashik have the highest number of cases related to depression, stress, sexual abuse, and mental health in comparison to other districts in the state.

The data also separated cases of married and unmarried individuals. Out of the 524 married adolescent males (between the age of 10 to 19 years), who are counselled for depression, 424 are from Nashik. Similarly, out of 483 married male cases, who are counselled for sexual abuse, 423 cases are from Nashik. Out of 1,286 married males counselled for mental health cases, 1,196 are from Nashik. Also, 3,607 cases of 5,396 married females, who complain of mental health issues, are from Nashik.

The state government officials claimed that the number in these districts can be high due to the number of children coming out and speaking about it.

Apart from Nashik, Chandrapur too has more number of cases. Out of the 3,267 married female adolescents (between the age of 10 to 19 years), who are counselled for depression, 1,431 are from Chandrapur.

Dr Archana Patil, Additional Director of Health Services, said, "The number of AFHCs in these districts must be higher due to which we can find more number of cases being reported. Not every district can have the same number of AFHCs. The number of AFHCs and number of adolescents in every district differs. We can't compare one district to another and come up with the conclusion that these districts' adolescents have more mental health or stress issues."

REACHING OUT

4,71,975 – As per the data, in three years, Nanded has the highest number of adolescents counselled

3,35,785 – Gadchiroli

2,44,139 – Chandrapur

1,68,560 – Nashik