Why are unmarried Indian women scared to go to a gynecologist?
Within the Indian context and patriarchal setup of the society, any conversation around young women’s sexuality is curbed and stigmatized. Sexual and reproductive health is primarily centered around married women and maternal care, making discussions around unmarried women invisible. This massively impacts the way unmarried women view their sexual health needs, often deprioritizing them, and not even accessing services.
Why does this matter?
Results from our most recent survey with unmarried women suggest that as low as 1% of women have received information on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) from their mothers, doctors or government campaigns. And 53% of these women feel unsure if the sexual health problems they faced were severe enough to visit a gynaecologist. Through stories and conversation we had with women, we learned that when they access services, they are often denied services, misinformed or coerced into decisions and unable to make informed choices in their self interest, thus marginalizing them.
Over the past year of our on-ground work, doctors and health providers we engaged with claimed to have been providing safe and stigma free services. There is massive gap in perceptions between unmarried women and health providers, gap in demand and supply of these services, which needs uncovering to design effective ways to increase stigma free access for unmarried women. There is little to no data available on this issue. As a cultural issue rooted in structural inequalities there is a need to empower women to open discussion on this issue, uncover stories and data around their fears, barriers and challenges that prohibit access to sexual and reproductive health.
