Say health experts
Staff Correspondent
The youth of Bangladesh are at risk of practicing unsafe sex due to lack of adequate sex education in schools posing threat to the spread of HIV/AIDS and unintended pregnancies, said health experts.
Religious and cultural norms are also impediment to get sufficient lessons on sexual health in schools, they observed.
They made the observation at a convention of health experts titled, “Bangladesh’s Sexual-Reproductive Health Programme: Experiences and Responsibilities,” organised by Population Services and Training Centre (PSTC), at BIAM auditorium in the capital yesterday.
Addressing the event, Prof Rashid E Mahbub, president of Bangladesh Health Rights Movement, said the government must take the issue of sexual health with utmost importance as lack of knowledge in this regard has severe social and health consequences.
“The cultural and religious barriers will prevail as long as there is lack of knowledge on sexual health,” he said.
Toufiq Maruf, president of Health Reporters’ Forum, said while much of the effort to provide sexual education is directed towards the rural areas, the ignorance is also pervasive in the urban areas.
The lack of access to information on reproductive health is reflected in the country’s high rates of child marriage and early motherhood, the speakers added.
Citing the State of World Population Report 2013, they mentioned that around 17 percent girls of Bangladesh get married before 15 while most of them become mother of two before 18.
Fayez Md Mostak, executive director of PSTC; Angela Khan, project manager of Comprehensive Health Services for Working Girls of PSTC; and Dr Noor Muhammad, programme director of The Underprivileged Children’s Educational Programme (UCEP), among others, spoke at the event.