As awareness rises, teen pregnancies decline in Karnataka

Mysuru: Teenage pregnancies in Karnataka are showing a declining trend, data shows, though an expert cautioned that the numbers are still high and called for more awareness among kids and parents to sustain the progress.

According to data obtained by the Karnataka Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (KCPCR) from the reproductive and child health web portal of the health department, 26,436 teenagers between 14 and 19 years of age, including 4,255 minors (below 18 years), were pregnant between April 2024 and February 2025. 

In 2020-21, there were 42,120 teenage pregnancies, including 11,365 minors while the corresponding numbers were 44,631 (11,806 minors) in 2021-22; 49,875 (13,527 minors) in 2022-23 and 39,606 (8,608 minors) in 2023-24. 

Experts feel that many of these girls between 18 and 19 years of age, who were pregnant, might have got married or conceived when they were minors. 

Venkatesh, Member of KCPCR, said they are holding regular meetings with all stakeholders and attributed "increased efforts and awareness" for the decline in teenage pregnancies. "While it has led to more reporting of cases, many cases are still not getting reported as people are still hiding them fearing law and society," he said. 

Child Rights expert Vasudeva Sharma pointed out that these numbers are still alarming. "The decline is a welcome development, but requires efforts to sustain and reduce the numbers further," he said.

Sharma said that child pregnancies with or without consent or child marriage is a crime under POCSO. But FIRs are not filed in most cases. And even in registered cases, the conviction rate is low due to various factors, he said.

One way to tackle the problem, according to Sharma, involves the health department, police and department of women and child development coming up with a single window system. "The moment there is an entry of teenage pregnancy in RCH portal, police should get alerted and they should file an FIR," Sharma said.

A small percentage of these cases relate to abuse or rape by adults. Most cases are related to child marriage and relationships among youngsters, he added. 

KCPCR President K Naganna Gowda said increasing use of smartphones and social media platforms have resulted in exploitative and unsafe interactions.

"We have planned to strengthen Women and Child Protection Committees (Mahileyaru Matthu Makkala Rakshana Kaavalu Samithi) formed at different levels followed by a government circular on August 6, 2019 to bring down the trend further," he said. 

Sharma called for more awareness and wanted parents to shoulder the responsibility of guiding children on social media and smartphone use.

"The Department of State Education Research and Training, with our inputs, has come up with a primer or manual to educate children from class 9 to PUC about aspects like relationships, sexuality, Pocso. But it is yet to be rolled out," said Sharma.