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WORLD ANTHROPOLOGICAL UNION

CONGRESS 2024​

Paper

An analysis of youth awareness towards contraceptive use and the role of counselors in promoting reproductive health education: A study in Lucknow city, India.

presenters

    Ekta Singh

    Nationality: India

    Residence: MAHARASHTRA

    Savitribai Phule Pune University

    Presence:Face to Face/ On Site

Reproductive health and its related issues are both biologically and socially shaped. While the types of diseases individual bodies can contract are conditioned by biology, the perception of those diseases and what they imply for individual and community health is influenced by culture. In the present study, out of 175 respondents, more than 50% female (age 18-25) knew about emergency contraceptives but did not know about the difference between birth control pills and emergency pills while counselling was taken by only 26.6% of the females. It was reported that there was an increasing trend in the usage of emergency contraceptives and incidents of gynecological issues among college students-uncontrolled bleeding and frequent abdominal pain. Most of the female (72%) prefer to seek information form the internet with respect to their gynecological queries. It was reported by the counsellors that the trend of seeking counselling by the females between age group 10-19 has increased significantly, over the span of 3 years but this alone does not meet the need for counsellors in the city as the lack of proper counselling centers that focus on reproductive health education in the city. The unavailability of counsellors adds to the reason why reproductive health knowledge is a challenge. Most of the schools and colleges should come up with a framework to incorporate counsellors who can promote reproductive health education and address the queries of youth with respect to their reproductive health without compromising on their confidentiality.

Keywords:

Reproduction, Knowledge, contraceptives, Abortion, Pregnancy