KRISHNAGIRI: Teenage pregnancy cases have been declining for the past three years in Krishnagiri district. The number has gone down from 627 cases in the April 2021 to March 2022 period to 165 during the March 2022 to April 2023 period. In contrast, the same had went up from 242 cases in the April 2018 to March 2019 period to 627 cases during the April 2020 to March 2021 period, show the Health Management Information System (HMIS) data.
“Teenage pregnancy in Krishnagiri district is showing decreasing trend for the past three years from April 2021 to January 2024 due to various awareness programmes against child marriage and teenage pregnancy. Out of the 10 blocks in Krishnagiri district teenage pregnancy cases are high in Krishnagiri, Kaveripattinam and Uthangarai for the past six years than other blocks.
The reason for this is the fear among people of some castes about elopement or love marriage of their girl child and it leads to child marriage. Most of the women are in the 17-19 age group and a few in the 15-16 group. In some places, people are showing reluctance despite many awareness programme.
Also the registering of FIRs against child marriages in the past two years has also resulted in reduction of child marriage cases,” said Deputy Director of Health Services G Ramesh Kumar citing the data.
The employees of the departments of health, social welfare, education, and child protection and others should be encouraged and appreciated for their work to reduce child marriage. It will further induce them to work a lot for the society. Crucially, people should change their mind set and must act against child marriage, Kumar urged.
Approximately, Krishnagiri district records around 30,000 pregnancies per year in healthcare institutions. Out of this teenage pregnancy accounts for less than 1 to 2 percent. For instance it was 0.8 percent during the April 2018 to March 2019 period. It gradually increased to 1.6 percent in the April 2019 to March 2020 period; it was 2.1 percent from April 2020 to March 2021 and 2.2 percent from April 2021 to March 2022. This reduced to 1.2 percent during April 2022 to March 2023 and further reduced to 0.7 percent in April 2023 to January 2024.
Krishnagiri District Social Welfare Officer (DSWO) and Child Marrige Prohibition Officer K Vijayalakshmi also pointed to various awareness drives against child marriage at schools, among Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme workers, and in blocks like Kaveripattinam and Krishnagiri where high number of child marriage cases are reported.
Krishnagiri Collector KM Sarayu said teenage pregnancy cases are declining as many department officials are working hard to reduce the child marriage.
Child rights activist and president of Thozhamai ngo, A Devaneyan opined that “Socio-economic culture study should be conducted in child marriage hot spots in Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts to ascertain the root cause. Also all departments should interpret the data to find the cause of child marriage or teenage pregnancy,” he said.