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53% adolescent girls in India, Pakistan believe ‘husband is justified in beating his wife’

By Myra Imran
February 10, 2016

Islamabad

More than half (53 per cent) of the adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 in India and Pakistan believe that a husband is justified in beating his wife.

The information makes part of the new report of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on sexual and reproductive health of youth in Asia and Pacific region. The report titled ‘Sexual and Reproductive Health of Young People in Asia and the Pacific: A Review of Issues, Policies and Programmes’ data and examples of 36 countries.

The report was produced by Burnet Institute, Australia for UNFPA in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) South-East Asia Regional Office.

The report finds that more of the nearly one billion young people between 15 and 24 in the Asia and Pacific region are having relationship before marriage than ever before, yet many face a dangerous dearth of information on sexual and reproductive health (SRH), and lack the critical life-skills needed to manage safe relationships.

It says that youth face major physical, socio-economic and cultural barriers to accessing information regarding SRH and also calls on countries in the region to urgently expand and improve SRH services as well as comprehensive awareness for young people.

The report further states that close to 11 million unsafe abortions took place in the region in 2015, and 34 per cent of these were performed on women under 25 years of age. Up to 63 per cent of adolescent pregnancies in Asia-Pacific are unintended, leading to further, larger numbers of unsafe abortions, which are often unreported.

The report also states over 30 per cent of girls aged 15-19 had experienced physical or sexual violence in four countries including the Marshall Islands, Pakistan, Timor-Leste and Vanuatu. It says that an estimated 620,000 youth (15-24) are living with HIV across the region.

The report says that knowledge of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) appears to be limited in youth of Asia. In Indonesia, up to 80 per cent of women aged 15-24 and 56 per cent of men could not name any STI symptoms. Low knowledge has also been reported among adolescents in Malaysia, India and Pakistan - where only 44 per cent of adolescents could name at least one STI.

Despite most young people having heard of HIV, comprehensive knowledge of transmission and prevention is low among 15-24 years old in all countries. Misconceptions are also common: a study of 300 adolescent boys aged 16- 19 in Lao reported that up to three quarters had misconceptions about HIV transmission, including that HIV can be transmitted by sharing a toilet or through mosquito bites.

The report says that the greatest number of adolescents (10-19 years) living with HIV are in India (120,000), Indonesia (46,000), Thailand (11,000), Myanmar (7,700), Pakistan (7,000), Cambodia (3,500), Iran (3,200), Viet Nam (2,600) and Nepal (1,200).

The report recommends governments launch more and better research to address knowledge gaps. It calls for increased efforts to build a supportive environment for young people's SRH to address socio-cultural barriers, laws and policies, and earlier comprehensive education on the issue.