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| Friday, 18 July 2003 |
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Between 750 to 1,000 abortions are carried out in Sri Lanka everyday while the Untied Nations Population Fund estimated that at least million girls each year have abortions most of them unsafe according to Prof. Carlo Fonseka guest speaker at the World Population Day Commemoration ceremony held last week at the Trans Asia Hotel. Health and Nutrition Minister P. Dayaratne was the chief guest. This year's theme was "Adolescent reproductive health". Prof. Carlo Fonseka addressing the gathering said, in the world today, with a population of over 6.3 billion, there are over one billion young people between the ages of 15 and 24. These young people are girls who are not yet women; and boys who are not yet men; but have reached a level of maturity that needs to be recognised. It is relevant to recall that Prince Siddhartha married when he was 16; and Mohandas Gandhi when he was 13. Clearly young people are capable of reproductive behaviour and they do indulge in it. There is nothing unnatural or reprehensible about such behaviour. As the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has pointed out, each year in the recent past, some 15 million girls aged 15 to 19, have given birth to children, and four million have had abortions, many of then unsafe. In Sri Lanka about 26% of our population of 19 million belong in the age group between 15 and 24 and by some estimates over 750 to 1,000 abortions are done every day. In 1953, the mean age at marriage for females in Sri Lanka was about 21 years; in 1993 it was about 26 years. This is a relatively late age for marriage and it has important implications for reproductive health of young people. Physiologically speaking, adolescence is the term applied to the period of final sexual maturation. Adolescence is also called puberty. Technically, puberty is the period when girls first become capable of attaining motherhood, and boys of fatherhood. In the West, the age at the time of puberty has become less and less during the past two centuries. In the Untied States of America at present puberty occurs between 8 and 13 years in girls, and between 9 and 14 years in boys. In Sri Lanka, the age at puberty is a little later than that. As already noted, in Sri Lanka, people between the ages of 15 and 24 form about a quarter of our population. They are the most active rigorous and aggressive group in our society. They have physical, mental and social needs including sexual ones. If these needs are not satisfied in healthy ways, they will be satisfied in unhealthy ways that will hurt them and society. The risk of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS is ever present. Health education including proper reproductive health education is a prime need of this age group. It is appropriate, therefore, that on World Population Day this year, the UNFPA has focused its attention on adolescent reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and implications for young people. |
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