Published Apr 10, 2026 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Apr 10, 2026 | 8:00 AM
Teen pregnancy Karnataka.
Synopsis: Teen pregnancies in Karnataka often go unnoticed for months, with families, schools, and health systems failing to detect or act in time. Data from the Reproductive and Child Health cell shows over 80,000 cases in the last three years. South First found late detection, lack of awareness, and weak monitoring at multiple levels are behind these cases, even as the state has proposed audits and stricter reporting rules.
In August 2025, inside a government residential school in Yadgir, a Class 9 girl walked into the washroom complaining of pain. She delivered a baby boy there, alone. Her classmates were the first to realise something was wrong. Not the staff. Not the system meant to watch over her.
Months earlier, in the Tumakuru–Chikkaballapura belt, a 14-year-old hostel student complained of abdominal pain during a visit home. A hospital scan showed she was already in the final stage of pregnancy. She delivered soon after.
In January 2026, at a school in Bengaluru, a girl said it was just stomach pain.
It was a regular school day. She attended classes, sat through lessons, and blended into a routine that looked no different from any other teenager’s day. When the pain worsened, teachers assumed it was nothing unusual.
Minutes later, the truth tore through the silence, the Class 10 student had delivered a baby.
By the time authorities stepped in, the most disturbing detail had already emerged: her parents said they had no idea she was pregnant. Nor had teachers noticed anything different about her.
Three different places. Three different girls. One identical story. A pregnancy that lasted months inside homes, classrooms, hostels. In each case, parents, authorities meant to protect these girls, their teachers, friends, the entire system around them said they did not know about the pregnancy.
“It is unfortunate that such incidents continue despite the presence of a system, at least on paper, which is expected to meet periodically to discuss these issues and protect our children!” said Shashidhar Kosambe.
On Tuesday, 7 April, the Karnataka government issued an order mandating a statewide audit of all adolescent pregnancy cases to strengthen monitoring, prevention, and support for girls aged 10 to 18. But South First’s ground report shows gaps at multiple levels.
Orders on paper are not enough. The state needs to implement them and monitor them regularly to control teenage pregnancies.
As per data from the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) Cell, Karnataka recorded 80,813 teenage pregnancies in the last three years. Bengaluru Urban reported the highest number, with 8,891 cases, followed by Belagavi and Vijayapura with 8,169 and 6,229 respectively.
Meanwhile, Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, and Kodagu reported the lowest numbers. But north Karnataka districts, Bagalkot, Ballari, Chitradurga, Bidar, Haveri, Raichur, Kalaburagi, and Davangere, reported nearly 2,000 teen pregnancies in the last three years. This data was tabled in the 2025 session of the legislature.
Of these, 276 were children aged 14–15. A further 786 were aged 15–16, at least 2,397 were aged 16–17, and 11,136 were aged 17–18.
When this reporter travelled through districts such as Koppal, local field workers said what reaches the news is only what becomes impossible to hide. None agreed to be named or felt comfortable speaking openly.
But the hushed accounts were clear: “there are interventions where girls are pulled out of school before delivery; cases flagged midway, but even those come late; several land up on hospital beds after incomplete abortions; over-the-counter abortion pills go wrong; naati oushadi (herbal medicines) are tried.” Some cases still reach delivery, and those around the girl leave her to suffer but say, “we didn’t know about it”.
“Most times, the girl doesn’t say anything,” one grassroots worker said. “By the time anyone notices, it is already advanced.”
An ANM in a village in Koppal said, “There is no way to check if a girl is pregnant unless we know she has missed her periods or we ask for a urine test. Both are controversial to ask in a village, so it is very difficult for us to find out until it is too late. Even assault cases get missed when girls remain silent.”
Shashidhar Kosambe said the question is no longer how this happened, but how it is still happening repeatedly.
Citing the Bengaluru case, he said the discomfort lies in what it exposes. This is not a remote village. This is a city that prides itself on awareness, education, and access.
“And yet, even here, a girl could move through her daily life carrying a pregnancy, sit in classrooms, return home, interact with adults, without anyone recognising what was unfolding. This shows families live close, but conversations are distant. Children have privacy, but no safe space to speak,” he said.
In almost every case, the first response from families is the same: “We didn’t know.” But “not knowing” is not always an absence of information. It is often an absence of conversation, said Child Psychologist Dr Uma Hirisave.
Across many households in Karnataka, discussions about puberty, relationships, consent, and sexual health remain uncomfortable, if not absent. Physical changes are not addressed openly. Emotional withdrawal is treated as typical teenage behaviour.
As a result, children keep a quiet distance. Even while living under the same roof, doctors say a child may not feel safe enough to speak about something as serious as a pregnancy.
In rural areas, parents often go out to work in the fields, leaving girls alone at home and more vulnerable.
Volunteers working with adolescent girls in Chitradurga told South First, “the bond between parents and children is missing, and young girls are at risk of getting attached to anyone who shows affection. Social media has become a bane. We tell parents to speak openly with children and spend time with them. We need to empower them emotionally as well,” said Raniamma (name changed).
Schools are the one institutional space where children are seen daily. But recent cases show visibility is not translating into vigilance.
In residential schools, where monitoring is expected to be tighter, pregnancies have still gone unnoticed until delivery. The Koppal incident was in a residential school. In day schools, behavioural and physical changes often pass without escalation.
“Teachers are expected to be the first responders, but most are not trained to identify early warning signs of abuse, distress, or even basic reproductive health risks,” Vasudev Sharma told South First earlier.
There is also a structural issue. Karnataka does not have a uniformly enforced, clearly defined protocol across all schools for:
“Residential schools, especially Morarji Desai schools run by the state government, should conduct health screening programmes when children return after summer or Dasara breaks. In Bagalkot, in September 2025, a Class 7 student at a Morarji Desai Residential School in Kandagal village, Ilkal taluk, was found to be two months pregnant,” An ASHA worker from Belagavi, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
“A complaint was later filed, and a POCSO case was registered against a Class 8 student from the same school. The boy had physical contact with the girl on a few occasions on the school premises. These issues have to be taken seriously, and students need to be monitored. It is important that sexual health awareness, the seriousness of POCSO cases, and the consequences of teenage pregnancies are discussed with children as early as Class 6 or 7.”
Karnataka runs adolescent health initiatives and school health programmes. On paper, these are meant to catch early signs of physical and mental health issues. But on the ground, implementation is uneven.
Routine health check-ups, especially in schools and hostels, are often irregular or reduced to procedural exercises. Screenings may record height, weight, or anaemia but rarely move into conversations about sexual health, abuse, or behavioural change.
In some residential settings, even basic monitoring, such as menstrual tracking or access to trained nurses, has not flagged advanced pregnancies. An ANM in Koppal said there is no way to monitor a child’s menstrual cycle because no tracking system exists.
The Karnataka government has now issued a mandate requiring all hospitals, including private ones, to report child pregnancies. Failure to do so can lead to imprisonment for up to one year and a fine. The Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Department has issued guidelines to state hospitals and the Indian Medical Association.
Under the law, every pregnancy involving a minor is a case of sexual abuse. Karnataka has child protection units, helplines, and POCSO enforcement frameworks. But these systems largely activate after a complaint is filed or an incident becomes visible.
Early detection is missing. Many cases involve someone known to the child, a neighbour, an acquaintance, or someone within the extended social circle. Fear, coercion, and stigma prevent disclosure.
Without trusted, accessible channels for children to report concerns early, abuse continues undetected, often for months.
By the time the system steps in, the window for prevention has already closed.
To curb child pregnancies, the Karnataka government in 2019 merged three committees, the Committee to Prevent Trafficking in Women and Children, the Child Marriage Prevention and Coordination Committee, and the Child Protection Committee. The aim was to create a more streamlined and effective body at the gram panchayat level to address issues affecting women and children.
South First visited a Kavalu Samiti meeting in Kaltavargera to understand how it functions. Explaining the process, Panchayat Development Officer Yemanurappa Kabbannanavar said the Women and Child Protection Kavalu Samithi meets every three months at the gram panchayat office.
The meeting includes the president, vice-president, members, anganwadi supervisors, village accountant, beat police, ASHA workers, anganwadi workers, self-help groups, and two students – one male and one female.
“They discuss recent cases and child dropouts, and check if there have been child marriages. Birth certificates and vaccinations are also reviewed. We examine these issues and, if we find a case, we go there, mobilise, and stop child marriage. If a child has not attended school for seven days, we track them to see if they have migrated for labour. We also provide hostel facilities for children,” he said.
These proceedings must be reported on a government portal. But this does not happen consistently across villages and districts. South First reviewed the publicly available portal and found most entries only state “meeting done”, with few reporting actual incidents.
Speaking to South First, Sushma from Karnataka Health Promotion Trust said, “Child pregnancy is a challenge. A 17-year-old girl’s wedding was fixed, and she called to say she did not want to get married. With the help of the headmaster, ASHA, and anganwadi workers, we stopped the wedding.”
On Tuesday, 7 April, the Karnataka government issued an order mandating a statewide audit of all adolescent pregnancy cases to strengthen monitoring, prevention, and support systems for girls aged 10 to 18.
The order, issued by Under Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Pradeep Kumar BS, treats teenage pregnancy as a serious public and social health concern. It links these cases to maternal health risks, school dropouts, and social vulnerability.
The government said that despite programmes such as the National Health Mission (NHM) and the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK), teenage pregnancies persist. This shows gaps in awareness, access to reproductive health services, and factors such as early marriage and school dropouts.
All adolescent pregnancies must now be reported by both government and private institutions. The Taluk Health Officer will be responsible for auditing each case. The audit will examine age at marriage, educational status, access to contraception and counselling, awareness of reproductive health, and any socio-economic or family vulnerabilities.
The government has directed stronger counselling services through existing mechanisms such as Sneha Centres. Contraceptive services and pregnancy testing kits must be made available as per programme guidelines.
Vulnerable adolescents must also be mapped, including school dropouts, migrants, and those from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.
The state has also issued guidelines requiring all hospitals to report pregnancies among girls below 18 to enable criminal proceedings under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
The guidelines issued on 3 April state:
If a case of child pregnancy is registered in a private hospital, the concerned doctor must immediately inform the nearest Special Juvenile Justice Police Unit or the local police station. Failure to do so will lead to legal action, including imprisonment for up to one year and a fine.
When a case of child pregnancy comes to light, the Childline number 1098 must be shared to enable protective and rehabilitation measures.
All hospitals in the state must record details of POCSO cases, ensure proper storage of medical records for legal purposes, maintain confidentiality, and cooperate with investigations.
The guidelines also state that private hospitals must create awareness among doctors and staff about the provisions of the POCSO Act. The government has warned that these guidelines must be followed.
The Government of Karnataka has also launched “Akka Pade” (“Akka Force”), a dedicated team to curb child pregnancies, child marriages, and related offences. The pilot will begin in Mysuru, Belagavi, and Mangaluru from 15 August 2026. The team will include women police personnel and senior NCC cadets.
The state government said a central task force has been formed to coordinate interventions, with a focus on districts with high incidence. It also said stricter action is being taken against medical stores selling Schedule H drugs (abortion pills) without a doctor’s prescription.
But implementation remains the key issue, child rights activists said.
“Unless these are implemented on the ground and people are held responsible to monitor and act, teen pregnancies cannot be controlled. Otherwise, the situation will not change with rules on paper,” said Shashidhar Kosambe.
