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Written By: Editorial Team | Updated : March 12, 2014 3:19 PM IST
The Indian government is going to launch a national adolescent friendly health strategy in January with a view to addressing the health-related problems among the young people, including the demand for contraceptives, an official said on Wednesday.
As part of the strategy, every district in the country will have at least one adolescent-friendly health clinic to offer a wide spectrum of clinical services and healthcare products including pills and contraceptives, said Sushma Dureja, deputy commissioner (adolescent health) in the union health and family welfare ministry.
The strategy will officially be unveiled on Jan 7 at Bhubaneswar, she said at a session on contraceptives for young people, at the ongoing global health conference on social marketing and social franchising being held here.
Chairing the session, S.K.Srivastava, additional secretary at the health ministry, stressed the need for using the latest tools of social media including Facebook and Whatsap to prod the young people to open up about their problems.
The senior officials also agreed to look into reviewing the current definition about the target group of free condoms distribution scheme by the government to deliver contraceptives at the doorsteps. (Read: Dangers of adolescent pregnancies)
Currently, the condoms were given by the ASHA workers only to the couples as per the norms.
When the experts suggested that the young people, not couples, should also targeted as number of deliveries and pregnancies among the teenagers were high in India, the officials said the matter would be taken up with the ministry.
The session also threw up startling facts about the young generation. Every year, two million girls give birth before they turn up 15 years in India. Out of total number of women giving birth, 47 percent were below the age of 18, pointed out Frederika Meijer, country representative of UNFPA (United Nation's Population Fund).
The speakers at the session called for integrated platform with different modes of communication to reach out to the young people who have limited sources for right information and services in the country.
The three-day event, which opened in Kochi Monday with a high-profile gathering of experts, policy makers and heads of several international organizations, is being organised by HLFPPT, a not-for-profit trust promoted by the mini-Ratna public sector enterprise HLL Lifecare Ltd, with the support of health and family welfare ministry, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, HLL and National AIDS Control Organisation. (Read: World Population Day 2013: Focus on dangers of adolescent pregnancy)
Here are some dangers of adolescent pregnancies:
Hypertension: They have a higher risk of suffering from hypertension during pregnancy than women in their 20s and 30s. They're also likelier to suffer from pre-eclampsia (What is preeclampsia?). In pregnant women (including teens), hypertension can lead to a serious condition called preeclampsia where women start passing protein in their urine. This leads to the disease called eclampsia which is characterised by seizures and a coma. This condition also affects other vital organs like the kidneys, liver and brain.
Anaemia: Caused due to lack of red blood cells which is usually due to nutrition deficiency like iron, vitamin B12, folic acid. The most common form is anaemia. Even women who're older experience iron deficiency during pregnancy.
Postpartum haemorrhage: The term refers to a haemorrhage (bleeding) after delivering and is quite common among adolescent mothers. It's caused due to the four Ts:
Premature birth:This has a host of complications including neonatal mortality (death within the first month) developmental disorders, respiratory complications, vision problems and heart-related issues. They're also likelier to have a low-birth weight which is linked to neurological problems. They also suffer from hypoglycaemia (less glucose in the bloodstream).
STDs:The chances of contracting sexually transmitted diseases including HIV is much higher in adolescent girls because they have less say in who their sexual partner is, particularly in an orthodox country like ours. Many of them are married to men who they've never met before and have no clue about their sexual history.
All in all adolescent pregnancies are a big menace and we need to curb the practice to safeguard the lives of our daughters, so that they too can live a completely fulfilling life.
With inputs from IANS
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