The Burden of Becoming A Teenage Mother

Are our teenager girls becoming mothers too soon?

- Viney Kirpal

In a survey by India Spend in September 2018, 14.1 per cent boys and 6.3 per cent teen girls were engaged in pre-marital sexual activity. Some interviewees may well have concealed the truth.

A more startling revelation is in the latest report from the United Nations’ Population Fund on this subject. It states that 7.3 million girls under 18 had given birth to children across the developing world. Daily 20,000 girls between 15-18 had given birth, including in India. Between 2000 and 2013, India topped the chart of 10 countries with the largest number of girls who had given birth before 18.

The report revealed that penurious, less educated and rural girls were more likely to give birth during adolescence than rich, educated girls. In India where the emphasis has always been on early marriage and early motherhood among poor and uneducated families, girls are known to become mothers before they have come out of their own childhood, sometimes at the age of 15 and earlier. Thousands of adolescent girls die in pregnancy, deliver low-weight malnourished babies, have to bear an enormous burden of raising a child and face economic problems. While these included child brides and unwed teens, our focus here is single mothers between 15 and 19.

1 Blurb

# Globe

7.3 million girls globally gave birth before 18 years of age in 2013

# In India

20,000/day girls below 18 years gave birth in India

49 per cent girls / women aged between 15 years – 20 years, v5.8 per cent women aged between 21 years – 25 years v5.8 per cent women aged between 26 years and 30 years

1.9 per cent women between 31 years and 35 years