Promoting knowledge on reproductive health vital - Healthcare Minister

Nadira Gunatilleke

The suicide rate in Sri Lanka which was very high in the past has how gone down significantly because of the projects and programmes implemented by the Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry to upgrade mental health. Similarly attention should be paid to promote knowledge on reproductive health in society without harming the norms, Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva said.

Minister De Silva was addressing the launching of national minimum standards and guidelines for a youth-friendly health service held at Galle Face Hotel, Colombo yesterday. He said that undergraduates and the students should focus on promoting reproductive health education because they need it more than any other groups.

Promoting reproductive health education is controversial and it should be done in the correct way. Parents should be friends/ brothers or sisters to their children which would help them communicate better. The Minister pointed out that in some countries parents communicate with their children very effectively but here in Sri Lanka parents think that providing food, clothing and school fees is adequate for their children.

They rarely communicate with their children and find out about their problems. “We have to go and meet the youth without waiting for them to come to us”, he said. Minister De Silva said when promoting mental health now, we have to move to other areas of the country leaving the tsunami-affected areas behind us.

There are problems that need to be addressed in other parts of the country. Some educational authorities oppose promoting HIV/AIDS awareness and reproductive health education within the country’s educational system but it should be done in order to ensure the well-being of the youth and adolescent population of Sri Lanka.

Dr. Gamini Hapangama said that adolescent children in Sri Lanka seek answers to their problems from three wheel drivers, barbers, peers and similar persons. They hardly talk to their parents, teachers and doctors because they think that they will be rebuffed or taken to task. Only 10 per cent of children talk to their parents about their problems while only 25 per cent of girls talk to their mothers about their problems. Saloons have become the places that provide `information’ to schoolchildren on latest `newspapers’ ‘cds’ etc.