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"Discrimination against the girl child which is the root cause for most of the health and infant mortality cases starts from the time she is in the womb .The infertility clinics which have sprung up in recent years are also adding to this menace as they are helping the wealthy people in getting children with the male sex," Purandeswari added.

Purandeswari said that her ministry had taken one initiative aimed at preventing this discrimination by prolonging the stay of the child in the school a little longer so that early marriage of girls could be avoided which in turn led to chronic health problems, anemia and health problems ultimately leading to high level of mortality during child birth.

 

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INDIA - Investment in youth health should be a priority, says Minister

New Delhi: India's youth population should be taken as human resources and they should be trained for the opportunities available by the entry of MNCs and other organizations, said D.Purandeswari, Minister of State for Human Resource Development on Monday.

Addressing a seminar titled "Investing in Young People' s Health :Issues and Opportunities', which was jointly organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Population Foundation of India, Purandeswari stated that India had reached a population of one billion on May 11, 2000 and nearly half of this population comprised of youth below the age of 25.

Taking a positive view of this, she further went on to say that this figure should not be seen as a burden, rather steps should be taken to care for the vulnerable who were exposed to various diseases and malnutrition.

"Discrimination against the girl child which is the root cause for most of the health and infant mortality cases starts from the time she is in the womb .The infertility clinics which have sprung up in recent years are also adding to this menace as they are helping the wealthy people in getting children with the male sex," Purandeswari added.

Purandeswari said that her ministry had taken one initiative aimed at preventing this discrimination by prolonging the stay of the child in the school a little longer so that early marriage of girls could be avoided which in turn led to chronic health problems, anemia and health problems ultimately leading to high level of mortality during child birth.

Another scheme of the Ministry which had been very helpful was the mid day meal programme which had become another attraction for the parents in the rural areas to send their children to school.

She asserted that sex education should start at the age of ten and the mother should take the responsibility for starting this dialogue with the children to prevent these vulnerable group taking lessons in sexual health from sex workers.

S.Y.Qurashi, Secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports pointed out that early marriage was the cause of many problems of health confronting the youth and adolescents today and asserted that "half the marriages in India are illegal" .

He said that if India could not win gold medals in sports, one reason could be that we Indians are a nation of under nourished people due to early marriage of girls which are considered 'Paraya Dhan' in this country.

He said that not taking the sexuality problem of the adolescents seriously was not only a problem of health but also of delinquency, drugs, child labour and a host of other problems.

Quraishi stated that his Ministry had created seven groups and with the help of some NGOs it had taken several initiatives under which the youth's talent could be involved to tackle some of the problems confronting them.

Having created an umbrella of these organizations his Ministry had taken seven steps to tackles problems of child marriage, dowry and sex determination tests, a fitness programme for front against drugs and smoking, providing safe water and promote social harmony and prevent hatred campaigns.

He also wanted sex education to begin at a very age and instead of having subjects like Maths they should add sex education in the school syllabus to prevent diseases like HIV/AIDS among the youth.

A.R. Nanda,Executive Director, Population Foundation of India, said that the demographic changes in the world revealed startling figures which said that half of the world's HIV/AIDS cases were found among the youth in the age bracket of 15 to 24.

Statistics also showed that 33 percent of married women in India were in the age group of 15 to 24 and 28 percent adolescents (10 to 19) were illiterate.

He said that sexual violence, STD/HIV, infertility, the stigma attached with these problems were some of the major concerns of the Population Fund of India.

Dr.Saroj Pachauri, Regional Director, Population Council, said that there were one billion youth under 25 in the world of which one third live in Asia and this will go on increasing till 2020.

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