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Author Archives: Deepa
Law and Adolescents in India
What is the government role in preventing child marriage and dangerous sexual health practices among adolescents in South Asia? The federal government passed a Prohibition of Child Marriage Act in 2006. Under this Act, the girl and boy that were subject to an underage marriage were given rights to get their marriage declared void. The [...]
Overcoming the Taboo on Sex Ed in South Asia
To summarize my previous posts, I identified adolescents as a vulnerable population that is often overlooked by NGOs and human rights organizations and went on to identify child marriage and reproductive health education as two of the biggest factors contributing the debilitation of adolescent girls. I talked about interventions for child marriage in South Asia. [...]
The Taboo Topic of Adolescent Reproductive Health
As I write about health interventions for adolescents, I am reminded of a conversation I had with Ganga, a college age South Indian girl who has lived in a girls’ home since the age of 8. She took her first sexual health class from a Stanford student who lived at the home for 6 months [...]
Community Health Centers and Adolescent Health in the Developing World
Tracy’s comment in Wednesday’s class got me thinking about how to get adolescents to community centers. I know that these centers existed in many communities and also that these women’s community centers are being pushed as really effective and sustainable interventions. But how much do adolescents use these centers and for what purpose? In researching [...]
Interventions for Child Marriage in South Asia
Desmond Tutu, a member of the Elders mentioned in my previous post, is visiting India this week because it has one of the highest child marriage rates in the world (47%) and has the highest number of children in marriages of any country. When asked why the Elders decided to focus on the issue of [...]
Girls, Not Brides
Within the topic of global adolescent health, the first topic that I am choosing to focus on is the effect of child marriage on an adolescent girl’s life. The phenomenon of child brides is more universal than just in Asia and Africa. The minimum age of marriage in New Hampshire, for example, is 13 for [...]
Adolescent Health in the Developing World
The World Health Organization defines adolescents as those aged 10-19 years. In the developed world, a majority of adolescent girls are still considered minors and are protected by society and the law. In the developing world, adolescents have serious, adult-like problems. Adolescent girls feel an increasing sense of responsibility for their situations. Some have lost [...]
Policy Shaping the Health Services Available to Adolescents in India