Addressing the sex related problems among Adolescent in India

Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Sociology - Gender Studies, grade: none, , course: Ph.D (sociology) - Social Science, language: English, abstract: Adolescent all over the world experience sex-related problems. India India too, they are remarkable in their similarity. The cause could vary from country to country. For example, while in the USA there is a teenage out-of-wedlock pregnancy every three seconds and a sexually transmitted disease every 13 seconds, in India most of the pregnancies occur within marriage and no statistics on sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents are available. It is considered to be high and perhaps equal to the USA figures.
The process of adolescence is a period of preparation for adulthood during which time several key developmental experiences occur. Besides physical and sexual maturation, these experiences include movement toward social and economic independence, and development of identity, the acquisition of skills needed to carry out adult relationships and roles, and the capacity for abstract reasoning.
Almost any of the physical changes occurring during adolescent can cause concern to the boy or the girl. The onset of puberty gives the physical excitement never experienced before. The adolescent reacting to these experiences is excited, often without realizing what is happening to him. Some react with pleasure or excitement and some others experience shame, disgust, confusions, anxiety and guilt. They may lead to sexual maladjustment.
In India, this age group forms 21.4 percent of the total population . Characterized by distinct physical and social changes, the separate health, education, economic and employment needs of adolescents cannot be ignored. In India there is a resistance to the concept of 'adolescence'.
Aside from these objections to the relevance of the concept of adolescence to the Indian scenario, it is also arguable whether the term itself is valid. Adolescents are generally perceived as a homogenous group, yet they can be stratified on the basis of gender, caste, class, geographical location (urban/rural) and religion. Adolescents also include a whole gamut of categories: school and non-school going, drop-outs, sexually exploited children, working adolescents - both paid and unpaid, unmarried adolescents as also married males and females with experience of motherhood and fatherhood .


This paper attempts to understand the sex related problems facing the Adolescent in India and the urgent need for educating adolescents' on their reproductive health issues.