New Delhi (NVI): Healthcare providers should take their services out of clinics to adolescents to deal with the increasing problem of teenage pregnancy and other adolescent health issues, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said here today.
He said India has over 253 million adolescents who require nutrition, education, counseling and guidance to ensure their development into healthy adults.
“This group is susceptible to several avoidable health problems such as early and unintended pregnancy, unsafe sex leading to STI/HIV/AIDS, nutritional disorders like malnutrition, anaemia and overweight, alcohol, tobacco and drug abuse, mental health concerns, injuries and violence,” he said.
Vardhan, who was speaking at a workshop ‘Investing in Adolescent Health: Harnessing the Demographic Dividend’, organised jointly by the Health Ministry and Observer Research Foundation (ORF), stressed the need for investment on adolescents in order to leverage India’s demographic dividend.
“The ongoing levels of teenage pregnancies and child marriages in certain pockets across the country is a cause for great concern and taking sexual and reproductive health services out of the clinics to India’s adolescent population will be the way forward,” he added.
The workshop brought together more than 120 delegates, including 30 speakers, from multiple stakeholders like State Governments, not-for-profit organizations, think tanks, UN agencies and international and multilateral agencies.
