Abstract
The aim of the paper is to know the health care practices of adolescent girls living in the slum areas of Sylhet city, Bangladesh, understand their health and hygiene issues including treatment, pregnancy, menstruation, vaccination, housing, water and sanitation related challenges they face in their daily lives. The study was based on primary sources of data; however the secondary data e.g. official documents, books, journals, policy papers etc. were used to conduct the study. The study followed qualitative research approach and the case study method to generate sufficient primary data. The study reveals that adolescent girls of slum areas face some menstruation related physical health problems e.g. abdominal pain, irregularity in menstruation cycle, excessive bleeding etc. Sometimes the guardian and doctor do not give much importance on it. The study findings show that adolescent girls of slum areas face multiple health care challenges including low level of personal hygiene, carry on treatment cost, lack of appropriate water, housing and sanitation facilities, etc. The study also highlights that family poverty, behavior of doctors, high cost of medicine, illiteracy of guardian etc. are responsible factors for low uptake of health care services. Therefore, the study suggests for coordinated efforts from the government, local government and voluntary agencies to upgrade their service delivery system.
Highlights
Bangladesh has experienced a phenomenal growth in the rate of urbanization and total number of urban people
Despite some progress in current activities undertaken by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare during the 7th Five year plan (20162020) as it is recognized modernizing health care and expanding population and nutrition services are crucial for the development of the country, critiques argue that initiatives to address adolescent health care services provided by the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) remained fragmented and less evaluated and health services are often focused on clinical aspects rather than expanding opportunities for preventive measures (Ainul et al, 2017)
The study findings demonstrates that majority of the adolescent girls of slum areas do not practice properly the rules of personal hygiene and not much conscious about vaccination. and face difficulties due to poor housing, water and sanitation problem
Summary
Bangladesh has experienced a phenomenal growth in the rate of urbanization and total number of urban people. Majority of the studies are conducted on the Dhaka city areas and there is a lack of studies in the North East region of the country i.e. the Sylhet division which is characterized by its diversity of environment e.g. famous for its hilly tea garden areas, wetland called haor basin and the plain land It is distinct for growing urbanization, both internal and external migration causes a new formation of small and sporadic slum areas commonly known as koloni and it is worthwhile to investigate the health care practices of adolescent girls living slum areas of Sylhet city, identify major issues and challenges they face while living in slum areas and propose some policy recommendations to improve their condition
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