Skip to main content

Adolescent Reproductive Health in South Asia: Issues and Challenges

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Gender Equality

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

Definition of Reproductive Health

Reproductive health is a state of complete wellbeing in terms of physical, psychological, and social wellbeing. Reproductive health constitutes the entire process of having a satisfying sex life, autonomy in decisions related to one’s own reproductive rights. The rights include having access to complete information related to safe, affordable, and effective methods to plan one’s family size, the spacing of children, regulation of fertility, access to health care services, and effective communication for safe motherhood that enhances the possibility to have healthy children and healthy mothers. Reproductive health involves three elements: quality of health services, informed free consent, and respecting confidentiality (Mago et al. 2005).

Definition of Sexual Health

At the basic level, sexual health involves the freedom of experiencing safe sex that is pleasurable without being troubled by real or potential discrimination or violence that leads to a...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Agampodi SB, Agampodi TC, Piyaseeli UKD (2008) Adolescents’ perception of reproductive health care services in Sri Lanka. BMC Health Serv Res 8(1):98. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-8-98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Akhtar S, Ismail T, Atukorala S, Arlappa N (2013) Micronutrient deficiencies in South Asia–Current status and strategies. Trends Food Sci Technol 31(1):55–62

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Alam N, Roy SK, Ahmed T, Ahmed AS (2010) Nutritional status, dietary intake, and relevant knowledge of adolescent girls in rural Bangladesh. J Health Popul Nutr 28(1):86–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arousell J, Carlbom A (2016) Culture and religious beliefs in relation to reproductive health. Best Pract Res Clin Obstet Gynaecol 32:77–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barcellos SH, Carvalho LS, Lleras-Muney A (2014) Child gender and parental investments in India: are boys and girls treated differently? Am Econ J Appl Econ 6(1):157–189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bewley S, Creighton S, Momoh C (2010) Female genital mutilation. BMJ 2010:340. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.c2728. (Published 02 June 2010) Cite this as: BMJ 2010;340:c2728

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biswas DK, Bhunia R, Mukherjee A (2016) High prevalence of abortion among primigravida and teen aged girls in the district of Purba Medinipur, West Bengal; India. Indian J Public Health Res Dev 7(1):74–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dalal K, Lee MS, Gifford M (2012) Male adolescents’ attitudes toward wife beating: a multi-country study in South Asia. J Adolesc Health 50(5):437–442

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darroch J, Woog V, Bankole A, Ashford LS (2016a) Adding it up: costs and benefits of meeting the contraceptive needs of adolescents. Guttmacher Institute, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Darroch JE, Woog V, Bankole A, Ashford LS, Points K (2016b) Costs and benefits of meeting the contraceptive needs of adolescents. Guttmacher Ä°nstitute, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Day H (2018) Normalising menstruation, empowering girls. Lancet Child Adolesc Health 2(6):379. 10.1016/S2352-4642(18)30143-3 10.4103/0019-5545.171843

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ganatra B, Hirve S (2002) Induced abortions among adolescent women in rural Maharashtra, India. Reprod Health Matters 10(19):76–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta G, Dhariwal P (2019) Study the factors influencing anemia among adolescent girls. Int J Med Biomed Stud 3(2):50–53. https://doi.org/10.32553/ijmbs.v3i2.94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hambidge KM, Krebs NF (2018) Strategies for optimizing maternal nutrition to promote infant development. Reprod Health 15(1):87. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-018-0534-3. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12978-018-0534-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ismail S, Shajahan A, Rao TS, Wylie K (2015) Adolescent sex education in India: current perspectives. Indian J Psychiatry 57(4):333–337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jabeen F, Sarmad R (2018) Awareness about reproductive health among adolescent girls in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Pak J Health Sci 2(1):16–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Jejeebhoy SJ, Sathar ZA (2001) Women’s autonomy in India and Pakistan: the influence of religion and region. Popul Dev Rev 27(4):687–712

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson E (2011) Adolescent pregnancy in India: an issue of life and death. J School Soc Work VIII:28–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Mago A, Ganesh M, Mukhopadhyay S (2005) Adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights In India. CREA, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathiyalagen P, Peramasamy B, Vasudevan K, Basu M, Cherian J, Sundar B (2017) A descriptive cross-sectional study on menstrual hygiene and perceived reproductive morbidity among adolescent girls in a union territory, India. J Fam Med Prim Care 6:360–365

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mishra SK, Mukhopadhyay S (2012) Socioeconomic correlates of reproductive morbidity among adolescent girls in Sikkim, India. Asia Pac J Public Health 24(1):136–150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nasrullah M, Zakar R, Zakar MZ, Abbas S, Safdar R (2015) Circumstances leading to intimate partner violence against women married as children: a qualitative study in Urban Slums of Lahore, Pakistan. BMC Int Health Hum Rights 15(1):23. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12914-015-0060-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Padhy GK, Pattanayak A, Jena D (2013) Effectiveness of planned teaching programme on reproductive health among adolescent girls. Indian Med Gazette CXLVII(8):287–291

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterman A, Bleck J, Palermo T (2015) Age and intimate partner violence: an analysis of global trends among women experiencing victimization in 30 developing countries. J Adolesc Health 57(6):624–630

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raj A, Boehmer U (2013) Girl child marriage and its association with national rates of HIV, maternal health, and infant mortality across 97 countries. Violence Against Women 19(4):536–551

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rao RSP, Leena A, Nair NS, Kamath V, Kamath A (2008) Effectiveness of reproductive health education among rural adolescent girls: A school based intervention study in Udupi taluk, Karnataka. Indian J Med Sci 62(11):439–443

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ravi RP, Kulasekaran RA (2013) Trends in reproductive tract infections and barriers to seeking treatment among young women: a community based cross sectional study in South India. Am J Epidemiol Infect Dis 1:53–58

    Google Scholar 

  • Renjhen P, Kumar A, Pattanshetty S, Sagir A, Samarasinghe CM (2010) A study on knowledge, attitude and practice of contraception among college students in Sikkim, India. J Turk German Gynecol Assoc 11(2):78–81. https://doi.org/10.5152/jtgga.2010.03. Published online 2010 June 1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salam RA, Faqqah A, Sajjad N, Lassi ZS, Das JK, Kaufman M, Bhutta ZA (2016) Improving adolescent sexual and reproductive health: a systematic review of potential interventions. J Adolesc Health 59(4):S11–S28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shah C, Solanki V, Mehta HB (2011) Attitudes of adolescent girls towards contraceptive methods. Australas Med J 4(1):43–48. https://doi.org/10.4066/AMJ.2011.499. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3448128/

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shankar P, Dudeja P, Gadekar T, Mukherji S (2017) Reproductive health awareness among adolescent girls of a government school in an urban slum of Pune City. Med J Dr DY Patil University 10(2):133–137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sharanya T (2014) Reproductive health status and life skills of adolescent girls dwelling in slums in Chennai. Natl Med J India 27(6):305–310. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26133325

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Singh MM, Devi R, Gupta SS (1999) Awareness and health seeking behaviour of rural adolescent school girls on menstrual and reproductive health problems. Indian J Med Sci 53:439–443

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Singla R, Garg A, Surana V, Aggarwal S, Gupta G, Singla S (2019) Vitamin B12 deficiency is endemic in Indian population: a perspective from North India. Ind J Endocrinol Metabol 23(2):211–214

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stover J, Hardee K, Ganatra B, Moreno C, Horton S (2016) Interventions to improve reproductive health. In: Reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health: disease control priorities, volume 2 (third edition). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK361913/

  • Syyed H (2019) An understanding of FGM (Female genital mutilation): women of the Bohra Community who are circumcised and its socio-sexual effects. PEOPLE Int J Soc Sci 5(2):630–642

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsui AO, Wasserheit JN, Haaga JG, National Research Council (1997) Reproductive health in developing countries: expanding dimensions, building solutions. National Academies Press (US). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25121311

  • United Nations Population Fund (2015) Sexual and reproductive health of young people in Asia and the Pacific: a review of issues, policies and programmes. Document code:TH/DOC/HP2/15/07. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000243566

  • van Eijk AM, Sivakami M, Thakkar MB, Bauman A, Laserson KF, Coates S, Phillips-Howard PA (2016) Menstrual hygiene management among adolescent girls in India: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open 6(3):e010290. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization (2018) Global Health Observatory data repository. Retrieved from http://apps.who.int/gho/data/view.main.1630AG?lang=en

  • World Health Organization (n.d.) Sexual health. Downloaded from https://www.who.int/topics/sexual_health/en/ on 24 December, 2019

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Urmi Nanda Biswas .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Biswas, U.N. (2020). Adolescent Reproductive Health in South Asia: Issues and Challenges. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Lange Salvia, A., Wall, T. (eds) Gender Equality. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70060-1_47-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70060-1_47-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70060-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70060-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics