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About a year and a half ago, in a small village in Dholpur district, I came across a wedding celebration. Wanting to congratulate the soon-to-be bride, I stepped into the mehendi celebration. Out of curiosity, I asked the girl her age, and she promptly replied, “Eighteen years.” There was an air of silence, her mother and relatives seemed nervous. I congratulated her and the family. My experience and understanding of cultural norms told me she was certainly younger than 18 years.  Barely a year later, she was pregnant with her first child. When I gently asked if she had planned the pregnancy, she looked at me nervously. That awkward silence said everything.

Working with the Jagan Foundation in eastern Rajasthan, I have heard too many stories like hers. The names and faces change, but the pattern remains painfully familiar: girls from poor and marginalised families had almost no real say in when they marry, whether they use contraception or when they start planning a family.

The NFHS-6 data, released recently, only confirms what we have been seeing on the ground. Beneath all the government talk of improving maternal health and falling fertility rates, a troubling picture is emerging — especially in Rajasthan.

Rajasthan’s disturbing trend

According to NFHS-6, the percentage of girls aged 15-19 in Rajasthan who were already mothers or pregnant at the time of the survey has gone up from 3.7% in NFHS-5 to 4.7%. At the same time, modern contraceptive use among married women has fallen from 62.1% to 57.1%. Interestingly, overall contraceptive use increased slightly, but that rise came largely from greater reliance on traditional methods.

This decline is particularly significant because it comes at a time when Rajasthan’s fertility rate has stabilised, suggesting that many couples may be trying to avoid pregnancies without access to reliable modern methods.

Nationally too, modern contraceptive prevalence has slipped, while dependence on less reliable traditional methods has increased. These are not just dry numbers. They point to something worrying: despite years of schemes and campaigns, young girls in many parts of the country are still being pushed into early motherhood.

Why are teenage pregnancies rising?

The rise in adolescent pregnancies is particularly striking because it comes at a time when Rajasthan has reported improvements in girls’ education, declining fertility rates and a gradual reduction in child marriage. The trend suggests that marriage alone does not explain early motherhood.

Public health........

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