Make sexual, reproductive services accessible to teens
Preventing unintended pregnancy is essential to improving adolescents' health and their social and economic well-being, said speakers at a roundtable yesterday.
Ensuring access to family planning methods and proper information about sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) would dramatically reduce deaths and complications from unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions, they added.
They made the remarks at a discussion, titled "Policy Actions to SRH Services for Adolescents and Youth beyond Gaps and Challenges", jointly organised by The Daily Star and Network for Ensuring Adolescents Reproductive Health Rights and Services (NEARS), and supported by Marie Stopes Bangladesh.
"Between 2015 and 2019, there were an estimated 5,330,000 pregnancies annually in Bangladesh, and of these, 2,630,000 were unintended and 1,580,000 ended in mostly unsafe abortions," mentioned Dr Md Jaynul Haque, former programme manager of Directorate General of Family Planning (DGFP).
He also recommended a national and political commitment to include and implement SRHR and family planning services for all adolescents and youths, irrespective of marital status, sexual orientation and gender identity.
In her speech, Farhana Ahmed, director of external relations and new business development at Marie Stopes Bangladesh, said young people deserve SRHR services that meet their needs respectfully and without any judgement, no matter how young.
"Appropriate SRHR services, including contraception, should be available and accessible to all adolescents without authorisation by law, policy or practice," she added.
Md Mahbubul Alam, country director of Pathfinder International, recommended preventing unintended pregnancies of those who are married at an early age and reforming the adolescent corner-based interventions.
"Family planning services must be rights-based, to reduce unintended pregnancies, instead of total fertility rate."
Population Council Country Director Ubaidur Rob said, "As long as the number of child marriages remains unchanged, adolescent pregnancies will not decrease."
Abdul Latif Mollah, line director of IEM, DGFP, suggested that coordination between ministries, the role of religious leaders and media, and mandatory premarital counselling can go a long way to prevent child marriage and adolescent pregnancies.
Shale Ahmed, executive director of Bandhu Social Welfare Society, urged the inclusion of trans and Hijra adolescents and youths in the existing programmes.
Mushfiqua Zaman Satiar, senior policy-adviser of the Netherlands embassy, highlighted the need for including men in SRHR programmes. "The use of long-term contraceptives is not women's responsibility only."
Sohanur Rahman, executive coordinator of YouthNet for Climate Change, said, "Based on my experience of working with adolescent groups, boys are less likely to receive services from the centres, and their inclusion is a crucial need."
He also urged focusing on the hard-to-reach areas in terms of delivering SRHR services.
Miranda Beckman, deputy office director, USAID; Dr Ikhtiar Uddin Khanaker, president, NEARS; Abdun Noor Tushar, physician and media personality; Arnob Chakrabarty, managing director, RedOrange Media and Communication; Golam Mortaza, editor of The Daily Star's Bangla section; Nondini Lopa, liaison officer at the World Bank; SM Shaikat, executive director of SERAC Bangladesh; Jannatul Ferdous, MNCAH and health systems specialist, Unicef; and Prof Sameena Chowdhury, ex-president of OGSB, spoke at the event among others.
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