Bollywood movie Teree Sang, released earlier this month, has brought the issue of teenage pregnancy into focus. It is ‘a kidult love story’ in which the lead protagonist is said to be only 15 years old.

This trend, doctors say, is apparent in Chandigarh and adjoining areas. Girls in their mid-teens, who visit these doctors with menstrual problems, casually admit that they are sexually active.

Dr Mangla Dogra, a leading gynaecologist of the city, says, “I have had cases in which girls of Class VI or VII have come to me pregnant. Once, a mother came with her daughter and said, ‘Doctor ji, ainu ultiyan aandiyan ne’. I was aghast to find her pregnant.”

Another gynaecologist in Ludhiana, Dr Vinita Munjal, has had similar experiences. “Sometimes girls come alone, and at times, with their mothers. In a recent case, a woman came to me with her 14-year-old and said the girl’s menstrual cycle had stopped. I examined the girl. She was pregnant. But had I told her, the mother would have started fighting with me, so I asked her to go for an ultrasound,” Dr Munjal says.

Doctors say medically, girls face higher risk of contracting infections or sexually-transmitted diseases. But talking to them about the risk of frequent sex, they add, seems to have no effect.

“They are not interested in any moral lecture. They only want medicine. Our concern now is that they practice safe sex, and insist on the use of contraceptives,” Dr Yash Bala, another leading gynaecologist in Chandigarh, says.

... contd.