Adolescent Health: A Venture to Gender Equality and Socio-Economic Development in India

The present paper deals with adolescent and its impact on socio-economic development of India along with the issues in gender equality. Adolescent, or the second decade of life, is a period in which an individual undergoes major physical and psychological changes. Alongside this, there are enormous changes in social interactions and relationships. It is a phase in an individual?s life rather than a fixed time period; a phase in which an individual is no longer a child but is not yet an adult. Adolescence is a time of opportunity, but also one of risk. It presents a window of opportunity because actions could be taken during this period to set the stage for healthy adulthood and to reduce the likelihood of problems in the years that lie ahead. At the same time, it is a period of risk; a period when health problems that have serious immediate consequences can and do occur such as deaths resulting from road traffic injuries, and sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies resulting from unprotected sexual activity; a period when problem behaviours which could have serious adverse effects on health in the future such as tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption are initiated. Worldwide more than 1.2 billion are adolescents: this indicates that roughly one in every six persons is an adolescent. About 21% of Indian population is adolescents (about 243 million). They are the future of the nation, forming major socio-economic and demographic forces of the society. They have specific needs which vary to gender, life circumstances and socio economic conditions. They face challenges like poverty, lack of access to health care services, unsafe environments etc. It is a period of preparation for undertaking greater responsibilities like familial, social, cultural and economic issues in adulthood. The health status of an adolescent determines the health status in his/her adulthood. Many serious diseases in adulthood have their roots in adolescence. Also, many adolescents do die prematurely due to various reasons that are either preventable or treatable and many more suffer from chronic ill-health and disability. We can categorize the health needs of the adolescents broadly into three categories- physical, psychological and social. Methodology: focus group discussion with adolescent population, interview with key population like health workers, officials and community leaders, literature review, used of published and unpublished materials related to the present issues etc.