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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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The HIV/AIDS epidemic has been fuelled by gender inequality
Worldwide, rates of
sexually transmitted infections among young people are soaring: one-third of
the 340 million new STIs each year occur in people under 25 years of age.
Each year, more than one in every 20 adolescents contracts a curable STI.
More than half of all new HIV infections occur in people between the ages of
15 to 24 years. The sexual health needs for adolescent girls are generally
overlooked, Stigma and vulnerability affects particular groups of men as
well as women. Although men generally have more access to information on
sexual issues than women, and more decision-making power regarding sexual
behavior, Access to information, and treatment for other infections which
facilitate the transmission of HIV and onset of AIDS, including sexually
transmitted infections, are limited because of weak public health services,
health workers’ negative attitudes, and the high cost of treatment.
If the adolescents are
informed and thought about their sexual and reproductive health, they might
take the decisions about it independently. But the physiological,
behavioral and social factors that make adolescents more vulnerable than
adults to STDs/STI. Seeing that girls have a large mucosal surface area
exposed to infection and have not yet developed mature mucosal defence
systems, the cells that line the opening of the cervix are particularly
susceptible to chlamydia, gonorrhoea and HIV.
Social powerlessness,
poverty and economic dependence contribute to the vulnerability of
adolescent girls. The HIV/AIDS epidemic has been fuelled by gender
inequality. Unequal power relations, sexual coercion and violence is a
widespread phenomenon faced by women of all age-groups, and has an array of
negative effects on female sexual, physical and mental health. HIV/AIDS
infection reveals the disastrous effects of discrimination against women on
human health, and on the socio-economic structure of society.
Usually, girls do not
have the same educational and employment opportunities as boys, and they
face family and societal forces for early marriage and childbearing. Early
marriage and early childbearing are the norm in
Bangladesh,
although age at marriage is rising in all the countries mentioned. Finally,
there is evidence that an increasing proportion of unmarried adolescents are
sexually active.
Now a day, age at
marriage is increasing, and this raises its own issues and concerns.
Sometimes Later marriage increases premarital sex. Sex outside marriage is
normally considered immoral and adolescents who engage in it particularly
girls are strongly condemned.
In many societies,
people from groups associated with high incidences of HIV infection –
including injecting drug users, men who have sex with men, and commercial
sex workers are subjected to a culture of fear and punishment when their HIV
status is suspected.
Source: Rainbow Nari O
Shishu Kallyan Foundation
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