Date:30/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/30/stories/2008013054490700.htm

Karnataka

Health survey comes out with shocking revelations

T.V. Sivanandan

NFHS-3 covers sexual behaviour of different
age groups
It is for the first time that the survey had questions on the topic

GULBARGA: A nationwide survey conducted on the sexual behaviour of different age groups has come out with contrasting results. A shocking revelation is that most women had sexual intercourse even before they reached the age of 18.

The survey conducted by the National Family Health Survey–3 (NFHS-3), which has been released now, states that in contrast the first sexual intercourse for most men typically occurs when they are about 23.

The Union Health Ministry conducts the NFHS once in six years and so far two such reports have been published (in 1992-93 and 1998-99). The recent survey forms the findings in the NFHS-3 and it is for the first time that the NFHS has included questions on sexual behaviour among the 15 to 24 age group among women and men.

The survey revealed that 28 per cent of the girls in the 15 to 19 age group admitted to having sexual intercourse while only 11 per cent of boys had had a sexual intercourse during this age. As much as 76 per cent of women had had sex when they were in the age group of 20 to 24, while only 44 per cent of men experienced sexual intercourse during this age.

The NFHS-3 also came out with another startling revelation that 8 per cent of the interviewed women admitted to having sexual intercourse before they were 15, while only 3 per cent of the men had sexual intercourse before they attained 15.

More men had higher risk sex (5 per cent) and multiple sex partners (2 per cent). Only 0.2 per cent of women reported having higher risk sex and 0.1 per cent multiple sex partners.

However, counsellors working in the Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centres, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the contrasting sexual behaviour among girls and boys and the high number of girls having sexual intercourse during their adolescent age were due to the higher incidents of child marriage, particularly in the rural areas, and girls falling prey to sexual harassment both inside and outside their houses.