Abstract
Inadequate efforts towards meeting the sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents and young people, who disproportionately share the burden of unwanted pregnancies, poor maternal and child health outcomes, risks of RTI/STI and HIV/AIDS, increase the risk of losing much of the progress made towards the Millennium Development Goals over the last decade, particularly in the context of low-and-middle-income countries like India. Using the nationally representative data on 160551 unmarried young women aged 15-24 years from the District Level Reproductive and Child Health Survey (DLHS: 2007-2008) in India, this research evaluated the demographic and socioeconomic differentials in the access to family life/sex education (FLE) among youth in India. Using the adjusted multiple logistic regression models, the association between access to family life/sex education and attitudes towards a range of sexual and reproductive health matters among young unmarried Indian women were investigated. Less than half of the unmarried young women had received some form of FLE (48 percent) in India. However, there were substantial demographic and socioeconomic variations in their access to FLE, as relatively less educated women from the poorest wealth quintiles, religious and social minorities (Muslims, Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes) were significantly less likely to receive FLE as compared to other women. Importantly, the likelihood of holding favourable/positive attitudes towards reproductive processes, knowledge and discussion of contraceptive methods, precise awareness about the transmission pathways of RTIs/STIs and HIV/AIDS was significantly higher among those women in India who had access to FLE. The present research underscores the protective role of family life education towards improving the sexual and reproductive life experiences of young people. It further underscores the vital need to implement a comprehensive and culturally appropriate programme of family life education in order to meet the sexual and reproductive health demands of the adolescents and young people in India.
Highlights
Inadequate efforts towards meeting the sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents and young people, who disproportionately share the burden of unwanted pregnancies, poor maternal and child health outcomes, risks of RTI/sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS, increase the risk of losing much of the progress made towards the Millennium Development Goals over the last decade, in the context of low-and-middle-income countries like India
Data Availability Statement: The dataset is available in the public domain for research use and it can be downloaded from the website of the Inadequate efforts towards meeting the sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents and young people, who disproportionately share the burden of unwanted pregnancies, poor maternal and child health outcomes, risks of reproductive tract infection/ sexually transmitted diseases (RTI/STI) and HIV/AIDS, increase the risk of losing much of the progress made towards the Millennium Development Goals over the last decade, in the context of low-and-middle-income countries like India
The likelihood of holding favourable/positive attitudes towards reproductive processes, knowledge and discussion of contraceptive methods, precise awareness about the transmission pathways of RTIs/STIs and HIV/AIDS was significantly higher among those women in India who had access to family life education (FLE)
Summary
The world is witnessing one of the most profound demographic changes in the history of humankind. This young brigade, often referred to in demographic literature as the ‘window of opportunity’, potentially represents the future generation of parents, teachers, technocrats, managers and upcoming leaders in the globalising world These cohorts of adolescents and young people seem to be living in a complex web of an increasingly urban life style associated with dwindling traditional family ties, escalating unemployment, juvenile violence, youth suicide, early menarche/puberty, early sexual debut, non-consensual sexual encounters, rising age at marriage, unintended parenthood, clandestine abortions and high risk of RTIs/STIs and HIV/AIDS [3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. We investigate the association between access to FLE and experience/awareness/attitude towards sexual and reproductive health matters among young unmarried women in India
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