Held by Dr. Sharda Jain, Dr. Pratima Mittal, Dr. N.B. Vaid Dr.  Amita Rawal,  Dr. Praveena Sachdeva , Dr. Sunita Fotedar,  Dr. Shashi Raheja Dr. Krishna Garg, Dr Sangeeta, Dr. Madhu Singhal, Dr. Ragini Agarwal, Dr. Maninder Ahuja, Dr. Usha, Dr. Surjit Kapoor ha been pillars of this activity.

You are very well aware that adolescents and youths form a large group of society (over 50%). It is sad that,  contrary  to our belief, the large segment of this population , specially girls are not healthy (40% are malnourished, 35% are stunted, 50-90 %

are aneamic depending on  various social economic groups ). It is also a fact that adolescents are responsible for  19% of and  20% abortions occur in girls who are less than 19 years . By  age 20 years 50 percent are already mother of one child, and 15% have two children. This is because  average age of marriage is 16.5 years for girls against the  official age of 18 yeas.

India has the third highest number of HIV positive cases in the world  after South Africa and Nigeria.One in 100 Indian is HIV positive  and   almost 50% of HIV positive cases are  less 25 years .  One study in Delhi shows that 37% adolescents are sexually active and none use condoms, which makes them more vulnerable for STD and HIV?AIDS.  Preliminary report of survey by

(NGO) in school based pilot project on holistic health (based on interviews with 10,000 adolescents in Delhi in 2002)  showed that over 50% adolescents report wide communication gap with their parents regarding heterosexual interaction, and report lack of independence. Almost   100% of adolescent acknowledge the need of sex education, stress and emotional management programmes in schools and holistic approach to education.

Such statistics tend to numb the mind of we elders , leaving us feeling helpless in the face of so huge and pervasive a problem of unprotected and unsafe sex. What is more unfortunate is that, the vast majority of these unwanted pregnancy  and maternal deaths need never have happened!.

“Among the most important freedoms we can have is the freedom from unwanted pregnancy and avoidable  ill health and  escapable mortality ”

Lady Hardinge Medical College 

thought  it is worth investing in young medical/nursing  students and groom  them as women activists of tomorrow,  as young population is growing at fast rate in our society. Medical students, not only  can protect  themselves, but  help the society by taking  life mission of  protecting every vulnerable adolescent girls from unwanted pregnancy  and  promoting effective school/ college health education programs in their spare time. Good  adolescent health workshops in school/ college should   cover gender sensitization, effective strategies for prevention of unwanted  pregnancies , unsafe abortions,   STDs/  HIV/AIDS  and  tobacco use.

It is very essential  that  youth  imbibes Indian values, decision-making,  learns ‘negotiation  skills’ in the interpersonal relationship, problem solving skills, learns how to say ‘No’ and  assertiveness, and management  of emotions ,  stress and time .In a nutshell  these are called the “Life Skills”. Teaching, negotiation skills has been shown to help young people to delay sexual activity; and when they become sexually active, they  avoid risk bahaviour.

Adolescents  need to analyze their friends on the pattern of the three different types of personalities e.g. assertive, aggressive and passive personalities and importance of getting away from aggressive personalities. The female teenagers need to be told to get out of the passive mind set which is prevalent in the most of the middle class families where they are reared in a way that they are not able to say “no” to the wrong demands and pressures .This type of passive mindset may lead them to the dangerous situations like going to the rooms of the male members alone, taking a ride alone, accepting a drink from the strangers and even allowing a near one to caress and pat them at unusual body parts. Many such situations are one-way path to humiliation and self-denigration as it becomes very difficult to come out of these situations unscathed.

Despite knowing the dangers of such situations and having all the values of the world, sometimes teenagers may be pushed into these types of situations by undue pressures of friends and stereotypes created by the media.  Once they are in such situations they come in conflict with themselves, as they know that it is not the right move to make. In all such situations, negotiating skills become really handy and important. The importance of being assertive without being harsh to the so-called friend or aggressor is very important. This is required to preempt any aggressive turnaround in the situation leading to rape, killing or defacement by throwing the acid etc .The win-win resolution of the conflict by enacting the plays or role plays and small skits is practiced to make teenagers confident to come out of these situations unscathed. The importance of handling the persuasion and various means of avoiding the pressures by putting the counter pressures, bargaining and broken record type of strategies are also demonstrated.

a. GLIMPSE OF OUR ADOLESCENT HEALTH WORKSHOPS

Over 650 such  adolescent health workshops  have been already done at Hardinge (Medical students/Nurses) /Delhi university colleges  prominent once are  I P college, Miranda College, Gargi College,  Maharishi Balmiki College of Bed Education , Raj Gugu College, Shyam  Lal College, Mata sundry College, Kirorimal College, Deshbandhu College , College of business studies etc.,   Extreme popularity of the workshops  in schools and colleges speaks for its  rating by students and teachers . We find at times short  of hands to do such workshops. Knowledge and skills acquired by students are sufficiently detailed  and explicit to enable each student to cope  successfully with the situation of risk they are likely to encounter  inside and outside school and colleges including peer pressure.

It is out experience that  adolescent girls are  “one most responsive to change”. Haronians are working hard to motivate parents/school teachers  for   enabling environment for adolescents and youths.

10 Hardonians  were trained. They wish to extend the adolescent health activities in big way in Delhi/Ghaziabad. Gurgaon  and  Faridabad.

Dr. Uma Passi
Dr. Vertika Kishore
Dr. Bindu Bajaj
Dr. Jasmeet Monga
Dr. Achla Batra
Dr. Jyotsana Suri
Dr. S Malhotra
Dr. Ritu
Dr. Deepali
Dr. Anjali Dabral
Dr. Sharda Jain (National Faculty)
Dr. Pratima Mittal (National Faculty)

Dr. Sharda Jain
Dr. Pratima  Mittal
Dr. Manju  Puri
Dr. Sangeeta  Gupta
Dr. Sunita  Fotedar
Dr. Lakshmi
Dr. Chitra
Dr. Shashi Raheja
Dr. Kala
Dr. Madhu Singhal
Dr. Meenakshi
Dr. Ragini
Dr. Sunita Mittal