The BBC has
a story about a festival in India, and its connection to increased condom sales:
Many years ago, a young woman who had just moved from the Gujarati
city of Ahmedabad to Delhi, told me about the "fun" they had during
Navratri - the festival of nine nights.
It's a time when even the
most conservative parents adopt a somewhat relaxed attitude and
teenagers and young unmarried men and women are allowed to stay out
until late in the night, participating in the traditional garba dances
held at hotels, banquet halls, parks and private farmhouses.
Since
the late 1990s, there have been reports that during the festival,
youngsters often throw caution to the wind, indulge in unprotected sex,
and two months later, there's a spike in the rate of pregnancy and many
land up at clinics seeking abortions.
Although many long-time
residents of Gujarat insist that these reports are hugely exaggerated
and maybe even a figment of overactive imaginations, the fact remains
that over the years, doctors and health workers have flagged up the
issue and state authorities have expressed their concerns.
There have been attempts to encourage young people to practice safe
sex and reports say that revellers, in many cases girls or young women,
are shedding their inhibitions to buy condoms.
Jaswant Patel,
chairman of the Federation of Gujarat State Chemists and Druggists
Associations, says over the past 10 years, he's seen the sale of condoms
go up by at least 30% during the festival period.
"Condoms are
sold not just at chemists and general stores, they are stocked at even
corner shops that sell paan (betel leaf) and most of the buyers there
are teenagers and college students," Mr Patel told the BBC.
But
despite the increase in condom sales, Dr Ruby Mehta, a gynaecologist
who's run a clinic in Ahmedabad for the past 20 years, says a spike in
teenage pregnancies after the festival has continued.
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