Barely 1 percent of Indian youth have had a parent discuss reproductive processes with them. While stigma, lack of information and socio-economic barriers often discourage conversations about sexual needs and reproductive health, young people from advocacy programmes are gradually helping adolescents open up about sex, pleasure and contraception
Access to information about SRH services to all is one of the Sustainable Development Goals to which India is committed, but there are gaps in implementation due to lack of detailed plan of action . Photo: AFP
Wasim Khan, a 24-year-old resident of Dharavi in Mumbai, had never discussed anything about the changes in his body with his family members. “If I had a problem, I used to ask my friends and used to visit a doctor only when something was serious,” he says. “And to do that I used to visit a doctor outside my area in Sion so that no one should get a hint about my sexual concerns."