Nearly 50 Percent of Adolescent Girls in India Are Unhealthy


Globally, every year around 16 million girls aged 15–19 gave birth, accounting for around 11 percent of all births. Countries of Latin America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa had the highest proportion of adolescent births. In these regions, around one in five babies was born to an adolescent mother.

Further more on sexual behavior among adolescents, UNICEF found that girls were more likely than boys to have sex before age 15. 8 percent of adolescent girls in South Asia had sex before the age of 15. In India, 8 percent of adolescent girls had sex before the age 15 and 3 percent of adolescent males had sex before age 15. The south Asia average was also around the same lines. The highest overall rate for sex under age 15 is 17 percent among Latin American and the Caribbean.

While Brazil observed 33 percent adolescent girls to have experienced sex under the age of 15, Haiti observed 42 percent adolescent boys to have experienced sex under the age of 15.

On violence against women as wives, the UNICEF report suggested that 57 percent of adolescent male in India supported wife beating, while 53 percent of female adolescent supported wife beating.