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tag: female,
male, commercial, floating, street, sex workers, aids, hiv, csws, idus, fsws,
girls, women, consensual, premarital, exmarital, sexuality, empowerment,
gender, education, prevention, dhaka, india, pakistan, bangladesh,
adolescent, teen, teenage, truck drivers. trafficking, epidemic, street
girls, knowledge, young people, discrimination, nonconsensual, coerced sex,
sexual partners, safe sex, sexually transmitted diseases, stds, stis, sexual
abuse, forced sex, risky sexual behaviour, business, multi partner sex,
heterosexual, injection, intravenous drugs users,
prostitution,
men who have sex with men, msm, harassment, sugar daddies, relationships,
condom, polygamy, homosexuality, extra marital, relations, truckers, migrant
workers, gay, hijras, hermaphrodites, professional blood donors, heroin
smokers, hotel, brothel, street based commercial sex workers, casual sex
workers, so called sex workers, violence, exploitation, Rainbow Nari O
Shishu Kallyan Foundation, Mohammad Khairul Alam
Mohammad Khairul
Alam
Executive Director
Rainbow Nari O
Shishu Kallyan Foundation
24/3 M.C. Roy Lane
Dhaka-122
Bangladesh
rainbowngo@gmail.com
www.newsletter.com.bd
Tell: 880-2-8628908
Mobile: 01711344997
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Adolescent
Sexuality, Gender Discrimination and AIDS
Adolescents girls are
at fastidious vulnerable in HIV/AIDS. In some of the poor countries in
world, girls, aged 15 to 19, are infected at rates as much as seven times
higher than boys; in some regions, girls are infected at twice the rate. The
disproportionate impact is related to widespread sexual abuse and gender
discrimination against girls, making it extremely difficult for them to
protect themselves. Females are also biologically more vulnerable to HIV/STIs
transmission because of the immaturity of their reproductive tracts and the
much higher rates of HIV/AIDS transmission from males to females.
The most visible
impact of HIV/AIDS is the increase in the deaths of young generation. The
highest mortality age for women is in the 2535 age range and for men in the
3545 range. There are 14 million 15-24 year olds infected with HIV, many of
them parents who will leave their children orphaned. The global epidemic of
HIV/AIDS seems to be just beginning. There are no reliable patterns of
disease or means by which it is contracted. Thus whereas, globally, HIV is
transmitted by sexual transmission (70%), mother to child transmission
(10%), infected needles used by drug users (15%) or infected blood
transfusions or blood products, the local pattern varies extremely.
It is susceptive in
some region in
Brazil, India etc, marriage itself may be a vulnerable factor, and female
who believe they are in monogamous relationships might be at risk of
infection. In many regions, a double standard exists whereby men are often
permitted, if not encouraged, to connect in sex outside the regular marriage
or relationship while women are emphatically condemned for it. Young women
in Asia,
for example, are being infected in increasing numbers by their husbands, who
engage in extramarital/commercial sex, yet these women have little power to
insist on safer sex from their husbands. Further, their risk of HIV
infection seriously increases when other STIs are present. This tendency is
also visible in parts of
America and Africa.
It is widely known
that some older men who are regular client of sex industry, often seeking
young girls or verging girls, some time they offer huge money for this, so
young girls are also trafficked for this. In many AIDS-affected countries,
including Thailand, men are seeking younger and younger sex workers in the
hope that they will be HIV-negative, but older men are presumed to be HIV
negative, mostly in some of the worst affected countries in Africa. This
phenomenon, particularly in the poorest countries, often goes beyond the
stereotypical man who is much older or much richer; it can involve anybody
who has more economic power than a adolescent girl and has no scruples about
exploiting such badly poor girls. Openly, the practice feeds on
circumstances of poverty and economic dependency and puts adolescent girls
at danger of infection from older men or those who have had many sexual
partners and are more likely to be infected.
As Prof. Abdul Quader
Palash of the L.R.B Foundation aptly points out, The significant rates of
sexually transmitted infection in the elderly point to the required for
successful behavioural change communication (BCC) activities. Safe Sex
education has shown significant promise in reducing risky sexual behaviours
in this age (Adolescent) group. These efforts have led to reductions of
risky sexual behaviours in adolescent groups, particularly among individuals
in very high-risk categories.
Adolescent girls may
be bound to engage in sex because they lack livelihood options or to help
their families, to feed and provide better their charge. In several cases,
this amounts to survival sex and occurs when diluted adolescent girls find
no opportunity or economic alternatives. According to the Rainbow Nari O
Shishu Kallyan Foundation report,
Bangladesh is a gender
discriminate country in the world with low, social and economic status
accorded to women. It is estimated that more than two-third women are
illiterate. So we must work together to educate, encourage and empower girls
and women.
All over the world it
also rising by anti social circumstance, such as sexual violence, rape, and
child abuse, although it is happened quit natural, but laws fail to punish
them in maximum time. Cause of previous experience other; time & cost for
police case and child or girls sensitivity, risk bringing shame and stigma,
their family think safe would be hidden real fact. Ms. Roushan Ara Rekha,
Executive Director of GHARONI said, within any nations, modes of infection
reflect underlying patterns of social and economic discrimination. Gender
discrimination, poverty and livelihood issues are increasingly emerging as
important factors in the demography of HIV/AIDS.
Sources: World Bank,
UNICEF, UNAIDS, GHARONI
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