PUNE, November 21: Forty-four per cent women could not decline sex with their husband if they did not feel like it. Only 14 per cent women could take the lead and ask for sex on a particular day, but such occasions were extremely rare...

A strong preference for a son continues to exist. Gender differences become visible as early as the fourth/fifth month of pregnancy. Through various ethno-diagnostic methods, the women guess the sex of the foetus and if it is thought to be a female, the pregnant daughter-in-law is neglected in terms of diet...

The most common line of treatment for a woman who fails to conceive for a long time is seeking help from a Shaman priest or getting the spouse married to another woman. The concept of adoption is almost missing... If 65 per cent of men thought there was a common opening for urine and menstrual blood to flow out of the body, 11 per cent married and 16 per cent unmarried men did not know that a baby was delivered through the vagina...!

These are some of the findings of a study on rural adolescents, both married and unmarried, conducted in the Shirur block of Pune district between June 1995 and May 1997. A 100 unmarried male and female adolescents and 150 married and male and female adolescents in the age group 14 to 22 years were questioned.

Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the study was coordinated by the International Centre for Research on Women and the KEM Hospital Research Centre. The findings were disseminated at a workshop inaugurated by well-known gynaecologist Dr Banoo Coyaji here on Thursday.

Presenting the findings, Dr Hemant Apte said that the objective of the study was to identify adolescents' knowledge, attitudes and practices about sex, fertility, contraception and reproductive tract infections apart from seeking answers to queries like who took the decision within the family in matters related to sexual behaviour, fertility and contraceptive use and what was the mechanism involved in decision-making.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.