One major contemporary social problem confronting most countries in the world is Teenage pregnancy. Teen Pregnancy has been a source of worry for policymakers, social workers, and other human service providers due to its negative repercussions on the girl-child. Almost 11 percent of the world's teenage pregnancies happen in India. India also has one of the highest rates of early marriage in the world. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) estimates that 27 percent of girls in India are married before their 18th birthday, that's a third of all our young women.


Teen Pregnancy is attributable to the girl's age and the absence of any consistent means of support to care for the children and themselves when they should have been in school. It is alleged that teenage pregnancy and its associated motherhood are characterized by shame, disgrace, school dropout, and sometimes the end of the individual's dreams of achieving higher pursuits. Maternal malnutrition has a direct impact on the child, as it causes inter-generational malnutrition, especially irreversible stunting. The greatest threat of teenage pregnancy is a higher rate of pregnancy-related complications like anemia, hypertension, hemorrhage, and unsafe abortions. In addition, malnutrition, sexually-transmitted infections (STI), cervical cancers, and psychological issues are highly prevalent. According to a study published in the Maternal Child Health Journal Trusted Source, teenage mothers had the poorest physical health of all categories of women studied. This makes adolescent pregnancies one of the most serious health and psychological threats to young women in India.

Teenage motherhood doesn't have to mean a young woman won't be successful in life. But its important they consider what other young mothers before them have faced related to overall health, financial stability, and the health of their child. What is required is a comprehensive approach that incorporates the home, the school, the community, the healthcare setting as well as change at the structural level. Multi-pronged approaches like comprehensive sexual education change in social norms by involving village and community and religious leaders, through life skills education of both girls and boys, access to contraception, setting up of confidential and adolescent-friendly clinics are helpful.


- Nasreen Siddique