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| Teaching them young |
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| Wednesday, 26 July 2006 05:30 | |||
It is often said that the future of the country lies in its youth, but when it comes to planning and programme implementation, this idiom is more often than not ignored.
It is often said that the future of the country lies in its youth, but when it comes to planning and programme implementation, this idiom is more often than not ignored. According to the National Family and Health Survey Round 2 conducted in 1998-99, the maximum fertility rate is to be found in the 20-24 years age group. More importantly, however, the data shows that the adolescents in the age group 15-19 years have an alarmingly high fertility rate, which is only a little less than that for the 25-to-29 years age group. In fact, adolescent girls contribute 17 per cent to total births in India every year, a clear indication that adolescents certainly require specific attention. State governments spend large amounts of money on medical and public health and family welfare. However, youth-specific programmes are rare. Adolescent girls are usually overlooked as a group, either because of lack of awareness of their needs or because a lack of specific data hinders targeting appropriate programmes. The Census projections of total fertility rates shows that states such as Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh will reach the replacement levels of population as late as 2027 and 2025, respectively. These states need to target their programmes appropriately to adolescents to ensure a more rapid decline in fertility rates. The trend towards early marriages is a significant cause behind the rather high levels of fertility in this age group. Early marriage has continued to be the norm among many sub-groups in India. Despite laws stipulating a minimum age of 18 for females to marry, the average age of marriage for women was 16.4 years in 1998-99, and 61 per cent of girls were married before the age of 18. Research into fertility of adolescent girls by Sharma (IEG, 2003) shows that early marriages are common in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, where 50 per cent of the girls in the age group 15-19 are married. High infant mortality rates, especially in rural areas, and the pressures to continue the family line push the girls into early pregnancies and although the use of contraception is increasing, it is still limited among younger females. An econometric study conducted at Indicus Analytics on Reproductive and Child Health (based on NFHS-II data) shows that the four main factors that have helped reduce fertility rates are greater access to reproductive health services, trained assistance during delivery, higher education level of women and greater access to health care centres. During the provision of these services, the government should ensure that the needs of adolescent girls are met. It is clear that to make any progress in stabilising our population growth, both health and education policy should have special focus on adolescents. However, it must be noted that education or schooling is less crucial than raising awareness of the effects on early pregnancies on health of adolescents. This will require a paradigm shift making adolescent boys and girls, and more importantly their families, realise the risks involved in early pregnancies. Source: http://www.business-standard.com/search/storypage_new.php?leftnm=4&leftindx=4&subLeft=1&autono=258009
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