India has maximum number of teenage mothers: Report

Charanjit Singh Teja

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Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, March 7

Despite strict law, India has a maximum number of teenage mothers!

As per a report of a London-based renowned magazine — The Economist —there were total 139.40 lakh teenage mothers from 2005 to 2010 in India.

Another South Asian country — Bangladesh — is on the third spot in the list with 34.13 lakh mothers in their teenage.

The neighbouring country — Pakistan — is on the 12th number with 14.22 lakh teenage mothers during the same years.

India is top in the list due to several reasons related to backwardness of society, whereas the US was on the 7th position with 21.09 lakh teenager mothers despite having modern society.

Experts said child marriage was one of the major reasons behind it.

Dr MS Sidhu, senior economist from Punjab Agricultural University, said: “Teenage marriages are one of the major reasons behind this. However, the trend of child marriage is downward with education, but child marriage is still going on in states such as Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. With the extension of education, the number of child marriage cases is decreasing in the Indian society but as per the figures, it is still an alarming situation.”

As per the probation of Child Marriage Act, a girl can’t marry before the age of 18 and a boy before 21.

Experts said following the tradition and sue to social security, parents often arrange the marriage of girls in teenage. The pregnancy in teenage has worst affect on the health of young women.

Dr Neelam Sodhi, a gynaecologist, said: “A girl should be mentally prepared and physically fit for pregnancy. Proper bone development is required to give birth to a child. There are certain ill-effects on the health of the mother and child due to teenage pregnancy.”