Unlike the city, where education and employment often delay marriage, suburban regions still see early marriage as a socially acceptable norm.
Published Jan 16, 2026 | 5:00 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 16, 2026 | 5:00 PM
Teenage pregnancy. Representative image. (iStock)
Synopsis: A study by the Tamil Nadu governemnt found an increase in the number of teenage pregnancies in the state’s urban–suburban belt. Activists and doctors attributed the rise to social conditions, lack of education and other systematic barriers.
Even as teenage childbearing has declined nationally, pockets in Tamil Nadu’s urban–suburban belt continue to show signs of concern.
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) (2019–21) data, the latest available, indicate that 6.8 percent of girls aged 15–19 in India and six percent in Tamil Nadu have begun childbearing, with the state showing little change over the past decade.
Against this backdrop, a government study from Poonamallee Health Unit District in Thiruvallur district, which covers parts of Chennai’s suburban region, found a recent rise in teenage pregnancies between 2022 and 2025, along with a significant share of high-risk maternal outcomes.
The social and clinical risks highlighted by activists and doctors are reflected in this government study.
The study, titled “Trends and Maternal Outcomes of Teenage Pregnancy in Poonamallee HUD, Tamil Nadu (2022–2025)”, analysed 281 teenage pregnancies recorded through the state’s Pregnancy and Infant Cohort Monitoring and Evaluation (PICME) system.
It found that while the overall prevalence of teenage pregnancy in the HUD stood at 1.09 percent, rates increased to two percent in 2024–25, nearly doubling from the previous year.
Health officials attributed this rise partly to improved detection and registration under PICME 3.0, rolled out in January 2024, which introduced mandatory Aadhaar-based authentication.
However, experts cautioned that better reporting alone does not fully explain the trend, pointing instead to persistent social drivers such as early marriage, educational discontinuation, and uneven access to adolescent-friendly reproductive health services.
Notably, the majority of teenage pregnancies in Poonamallee were among older adolescents aged 18–19, mirroring NFHS patterns that show childbearing rises sharply toward the upper end of the adolescent age group.
While Tamil Nadu’s overall adolescent fertility remains lower than several other states, the study underscores how district-level data can reveal vulnerabilities masked by state averages.
Speaking to South First, women’s rights activist Kavitha Gajendran said the rise in teenage pregnancies seen in pockets like Poonamallee cannot be understood through state or city-wide averages alone.
While Chennai district reports relatively lower teenage pregnancy rates, she pointed out that peri-urban and suburban areas operate under very different social conditions, even though they sit close to a metropolitan city.
“These are not fully urban, progressive spaces, nor are they entirely rural,” she said, explaining that many suburban areas continue to be shaped by feudal family structures, caste hierarchies and tightly bound local communities.
Unlike the city, where education and employment often delay marriage, suburban regions still see early marriage as a socially acceptable norm, particularly among economically vulnerable families.
Gajendran cautioned against generalising this pattern to all suburbs, stressing that Poonamallee stands out because data exists to show what is happening there.
The study’s value, she said, lies in revealing how specific communities repeatedly cycle through early marriage, early pregnancy and limited opportunity, even as broader indicators suggest improvement.
“These patterns don’t emerge randomly,” she added. “When you look at who accesses local health centres over the years, you begin to see which communities are being pushed into the same outcomes generation after generation.”
Gajendran said teenage pregnancy in these areas is driven less by individual choice and more by structural deprivation.
Families facing chronic unemployment, poor housing, alcoholism and unstable incomes often push adolescents into work early, cutting short their education and narrowing life choices.
“When education stops, marriage and pregnancy follow very quickly — especially for girls,” she noted.
In many cases, she said, pregnancy precedes marriage, rather than the other way around. Girls become pregnant as adolescents and are then married off to contain social fallout.
“You don’t even have to get married first — pregnancy happens, and then marriage is forced,” she said, underscoring how lack of awareness and limited access to reproductive health services compound the problem.
On maternal health risks, Gajendran argued that stigma is not always the main barrier, especially among working-class families. Instead, the real challenge is poor nutrition and weak access to quality healthcare, which leave young pregnant girls physically unprepared for childbirth.
“You can see it when you visit public hospitals; very young girls, visibly undernourished, already struggling with pregnancy,” she said.
Breaking this cycle, she emphasised, requires more than short-term schemes. She said while government programmes exist, what is missing is sustained awareness, education and economic mobility.
“Unless children from these communities are supported to study, grow and move out of this loop, teenage pregnancy will keep repeating itself,” she said.
Speaking to South First, Dr Shaibya Saldanha, consultant gynaecologist from Bengaluru, said that many of the health risks associated with teenage pregnancies stem not from biology alone, but from systemic barriers that prevent adolescents from accessing care early.
“Most teenagers are unable to access reproductive health services on their own,” she said, pointing to the absence of rights-based sexuality education that would help young people understand that they are entitled to confidential healthcare.
As a result, adolescents often lack even basic knowledge about pregnancy, contraception, and where to seek medical help.
Dr Saldanha added that mandatory reporting requirements under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, combined with fear of stigma and widespread ignorance about healthcare provisions, further discourage adolescents from approaching health facilities.
“They realise very late that they are pregnant, and by then they are afraid to ask for help,” she said, noting that many do not know which services are safe or accessible for them.
This delay, she warned, creates a “toxic situation” in which pregnancies remain unmonitored for long periods, leading to high-risk pregnancies and severe complications during pregnancy and childbirth.
Early access to non-judgemental, adolescent-friendly healthcare, she stressed, is critical to preventing avoidable maternal and neonatal outcomes.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
