Teenage pregnancy still remains to be a major problem in most parts of the world. In the third world countries (most of Africa, and many parts of asia), teenage pregnancy is mainly because of Child Marriage, illiteracy, and unawareness about the danger of teenage pregnancy (a teenage mother and her kid is likely to suffer health problems). However in developed countries like USA, where most of the teenage pregnancy occur amongst unmarried grils, the problem mainly exists because of lack of sex education amongst teenage kids.
With the changing social and economic scenario in India (where girls are increasingly becoming self-dependent and they stay away from their families for education and work), teenage pregnancy amongst unmarried girls is rising very fast. Though the teenage pregnancy amongst unmarried and married girl is equally harmful, but mostly unmarried girls are under more social, economic and psychological pressure. In most cases, in case of unmarried pregnancies, girls do not feel comfortable discussing the issue with their families and close friends. They can only talk to their partners, who themselves do not feel very comfortable with the situation. In case the couple is not-working (students), they have to also bear the financial pressure and they try to choose the cheapest options (which may not be very safe).
In India there is a great need of counselling centers for teenage pregnancies (pregnancy over all). Also there is an increasing need of sex education at High School level. In USA and many european countries, there are many NGOs working on such issues and they have been successful to a great extent in reducing the rate of childhood pregnancies. We need some similar effort in India.
Some resources on Teenage Pregnancy:
Some useful Information
Fact sheet
Liz Mason’s Site
More Info
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