There’s more teenage sex than we know

A recent survey by the Population Council in Pune district found that premarital sex between young men and women is not as uncommon as conservative society at large would like to believe. In fact, its rampancy and the inadequacy of sex education and non-judgmental counselling are among the reasons for the country's rising incidence of HIV and AIDS.

By Arun Anand

Rani was in class XII when her classmate in Pune proposed "loveship" to her, a hybrid word that means exactly as much as, or far more than, "friendship". The word is an indication of the inventiveness of the distinct vocabulary used by adolescents these days.

Undercutting the common perception that intimate interactions between unmarried young women and men are uncommon in both rural and urban areas is a volatile adolescent sexuality that might run very quiet and very deep. This, and many such trends, has come up conclusively in a recent community-based study and in-depth survey by the Population Council in Maharashtra's Pune district.

To understand the dimension as well as diversity of sexual experiences, the Population Council survey team selected for study an urban slum in Pune city and a rural site that covered 90 villages in Pune district.

The sites have a population of approximately 100,000 each. The district is economically developed and the youth have access to education, employment and modern lifestyles. Pune also has a high prevalence of HIV. The survey covered young males and females aged 15-24. The average age of those interviewed—2,150 unmarried women and 1,350 married women both from the rural and urban areas and 950 unmarried and married men from both these areas was 19 years. Those married were asked about their pre- marital experiences.

The survey concluded that that one out of five young men and a little less than one out of 20 young women have premarital sex. It also showed that urban youngsters are more sexually active than their rural counterparts. While it is something that society at large has long suspected—and the media has often buttressed with various surveys and Gallup polls—the study does put to rest the obstinate myth that sex in Indian society occurs largely within the institution of marriage. Most of all, however, it provides the authorities in charge of the country's reproductive health programmes the information that they need to update their perceptions and policies pronto.

Says Shireen Jejeebhoy, senior programme associate at the Population Council, who was directly associated with the survey, "This study argues for India's reproductive health programmes to include unmarried young people and to recognise their need to for information and services on the issue of reproductive health." Counselling and contraceptive services, so far largely available to married young couples, must also be offered in a non-judgmental and confidential manner to single youth, she adds.

So late in the day, the authorities won't be nipping the issue in the bud; they would just be intervening in an established trend. According to the study, over 25 per cent of young men engage in sexual relations within the first month of a partnership, while 2-12 per cent of young women do so. Says 17-year-old Sahil, "I proposed to her for a sexual relationship for 45 times over [the period of] a month. After a month, when I met her alone and proposed, she said yes."

Despite this alacrity, contraceptive use is far from universal. Merely a quarter of the young men regularly use condoms, while for women, the premarital use of any contraceptive method is even rarer. The gender difference is marked even in the matter of consenting to a sexual relationship. While nine per cent of the young women are "forced" and 30 per cent "persuaded" to have sex the first time, just three per cent of men admit to "forcing" their partners; 14 per cent of urban young men claim they "persuaded" their partners.

The survey found that despite strict parental supervision and norms discouraging sexually-based friendships among the unmarried, partnerships are formed that lead to sexual relations by 15-30 per cent of the young men and about 10 per cent of the young women.

Although partners are generally from the same neighbourhood, most relationships are clandestine, outside the knowledge of the family. While opportunities for couples to meet are few, proposals are made in several ways, some of which are indirect, such as through letters and inter-mediaries like friends or younger children.

"He gave me a letter. I did not reply," says 18-year-old Pushpa, who lives in a village. "After a month, on my birthday, he sent me a greeting card. Then I said yes. I also wrote a letter to him." Says Sahil, "Once they seem to be responding to [our] overtures, as they smile and talk, then one can go directly and propose."

A report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said, "In India, adolescents (10-19 years of age) account for one-fifth of the population and are in great need of information and services on sexual and reproductive health.

"HIV prevalence, predominantly through heterosexual contact, is over 1 per cent among antenatal (largely monogamous) women in some areas, raising concern about the rate of spread of HIV. Fifty per cent of new infections occur below age 25 and for every 12 men infected, ten women test positive. HIV carriers are estimated to have crossed the 3.9 million mark, the second largest number in the world," the UNFPA country report says.

The imperative to do something about it is not moral—it has everything to do with public health and the fact that the inadequacy of sex education in India is directly proportional to the rising incidence of HIV and AIDS. Perhaps surveys like this will make the authorities sit up and take notice.