Navratri revelry could throw up unwanted pregnancies, HIV

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Navratri revelry could throw up unwanted pregnancies, HIV

Indo-Asian News Service

Mumbai, September 25, 2005

The upcoming nine-day Navratri festival is a time when a majority of

Mumbai's youth would be on an unfettered spree of singing, dancing

and revelry late into the nights, raising fears of unwanted

pregnancies and of some contracting HIV/AIDS due to unprotected sex.

The festival, which begins on October 3, is a mega-event in this

megalopolis as millions of youngsters flock the scores of Dandiya-

Raas mandals (festival committees) that come up in the city, making

it a nearly Rs 5 billion extravaganza.

The youngsters, often dressed in traditional attire, converge at

grand marquees for the musical nights organised by these mandals to

dance in step in circle formation to folksongs and the latest

Bollywood chartbusters.

For the teenagers, the festival is a time they find a perfect alibi

and a chance to indulge in some adventure.

For many youth, the celebrations do not end with the winding up of

the dance parties at around 2 or 3 am.

According to surveys done by the Mumbai Obstetric and Gynaecological

Society, pregnancies among the city's unwed young women reportedly

shoot up between 30-50 per cent in the three months after the

Navratri period.

" Many youngsters, who on normal days do not venture out in the

nights, are given total freedom during Navratri, " said Ishwar

Satyanarayan Gilada, a city-based gynaecologist and a member of the

society.

" Without proper guidance they turn too adventurous and end up being

sorry, " Gilada said.

Gilada, also the secretary general of People's Health Organisation

(PHO), an NGO working against HIV/AIDS, runs a help-line to counsel

people in need.

" We receive a number of calls from the youth during these days

seeking advice on use of contraceptives and safe sex, " Gilada said.

More than one per cent of Mumbai's over 15 million population is

affected by HIV/AIDS.

The average age of the people who call the NGO is around 19-20

years, Gilada claimed.

Another survey done by the Federation of Obstetricians' and

Gynaecologists' Societies of India (FOGSI) among Mumbai college

students showed that some 25 per cent of those within the 16-19

years age group were already sexually active.

" Out of these (the youth surveyed) a large number do not make use of

contraceptives in the beginning. They think about it only after a

couple or more experiences, " said Duru Shah, another leading city

gynaecologist and FOGSI's president elect.

Though she did not claim to have observed an increase in the rate of

abortions in the post-Navratri period, Shah said it could perhaps be

because of the " hush-up " of such cases within the family.

" Assuming that it is the youngsters from well-off families that

attend Raas-Garba nights it would not be difficult for them to hush

things up in a private nursing home, " Shah opined.

She, however, hopes that with the Supreme Court ban on the use of

loudspeakers between 10 pm and 6 am firmly in place, the youth would

flock back home earlier.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1500365,000600010004.htm