Qualitative and Quantitative Insights in Sexual Attitude and Behavior of Adolescents in Traditional Society

In the course of transition to adulthood, adolescents are exposed to sexual and reproductive health risks. India, being a traditional society, somehow inhibits its adolescents in redressing their queries and thus many of them lack correct knowledge to make informed sexual and reproductive decisions. The study aims at understanding the attitude of adolescents towards sexual matters; involvement in sexual activities and exploring their experiences of pre-marital sex (PMS) or extra marital sex (EMS) through qualitative and quantitative analysis. The study has used data from Youth Study, 2006-07 focused on unmarried and married men and women in the age group of 15-29 years in rural and urban settings. The study highlights that substantial percentage of adolescent considered hugging or kissing acceptable but at the same time they did consented PMS or EMS. Adolescents do involve in romantic relationships and sometimes get engaged in PMS or EMS; however these are widely under cover. As Indian society is in transitional phase, there is need to provide culturally appropriate sex education to cater the adolescents sexual and reproductive health needs to prevent them from perversion’ for taking advantage of demographic dividend in India.