Population Council

Project in collaboration with Population Council, New Delhi

Formation of partnerships among young women and men in Pune district,Maharashtra

The Population Council is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organisation that seeks to improve the well-being and reproductive health of current and future generations around the world and to help achieve a humane, equitable and sustainable balance between people and resources. The Council conducts biomedical, social science and public health research, and helps build research capacities in developing countries.

Aside from their educational attainment, economic activity levels and age at marriage, little is known about the lives of young people in India, and especially the extent to which and the contexts in which they form romantic, marital and other partnerships or the nature of these partnerships. At a time when India's Youth Policy and its Reproductive and Child Health and National AIDS Control Programmes have acknowledged the need to focus on youth, it is central that these gaps in understanding are filled.

The KEM Hospital Research Centre and the Population Council conducted a study in Pune district, Maharashtra in 2003–05, one of the first exercises in India of obtaining information on romantic and sexual partnership formation and sexual activity among young people, through a large-scale community-based survey and related textual data gathering. The study focused on exploring the situation of unmarried and married young women and men aged 15–24 in rural and urban slum settings. While the intention was to focus on the formation of partnerships — including romantic and casual, pre-marital and marital, with and without physical and sexual contact — the study also provided insights into the lives of young people, including their decision-making and mobility, perceptions of self worth, their awareness of sexual and reproductive matters and their gender role attitudes. It also explored their family connections, peer and social networks and marriage processes and experiences. This report describes findings of the study. Information is presented on young people in eight subgroups, divided by sex (male, female), marital status (unmarried, married) and residence (rural and urban slum)