𝐀𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐌𝐞𝐧 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐡𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐧

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒊𝒆𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝑫𝒂𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒊𝒓𝒍 𝑪𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅 (𝑶𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒃𝒆𝒓 11𝒕𝒉)

Wangchuk Dema, Thimphu

Many people imagine teenage pregnancy as a story of two high school sweethearts caught in a moment of youthful passion and a mutual, innocent mistake. This narrative may sound harmless, even sweet. However, besides the fact that such cases of teenage pregnancy as a result of consensual relationships between teenagers are less common, the uncomfortable truth is that this story is misleading and dangerous. It hides a much darker reality of teenage pregnancy, which is sexual violence and exploitation perpetrated by adult men against teenage girls.

General discussions have often revolved around the teenage girls, either policing their behavior and blaming them for the pregnancy or helping them reintegrate into society, for instance, by supporting their return to school. This means they carry the pregnancy to term, often against their wishes. In all of this, the perpetrator is usually omitted from the equation, their crime discounted, and in some cases, the family of the girl coerces her to marry her perpetrator to defend her dignity, or more often, their own.

Over time, we have made progress in understanding and addressing teenage pregnancy as a society, with some national efforts and interventions to prevent or reduce it. Adolescent fertility, or teenage pregnancy, has decreased from 120.2 per 1,000 girls in 1994 to 18.6 in 2023, as per the fifth National Health Survey conducted by the Ministry of Health (2023). This is a major milestone, but only late adolescent fertility, or pregnancies among those aged 15 to 19, were captured in the data. In other words, early adolescents aged 10 to 14 who were pregnant were left out in the second to fifth National Health Surveys, while the first is unavailable. The omission of early adolescents from the study is a systemic failure to acknowledge sexual violence against this group, who are even more vulnerable and in the greatest need of protection from grooming and exploitation, most likely by grown men.

There are global and regional studies that show most teenage pregnancies involve adult men rather than teenage boys. In Bangladesh, about 74 percent of women who married in childhood had husbands who were five or more years older. Breaking it down, 29 percent of child brides had husbands 10 or more years older, while 45 percent had husbands 5 to 9 years older (UNICEF, 2020). Almost half of them, 48 percent, gave birth before age 18 and 80 percent before age 20, meaning they were all still teenagers. In Bhutan, there is little comprehensive or publicly available data disaggregating the ages of perpetrators in adolescent pregnancies. Nevertheless, we are aware of the gravity of the issue. There are countless reports of sexual violence against minors and resulting pregnancies committed by adult men that continue to surface, including one of the most disturbing recent cases in May this year, which involved a biological father who raped and impregnated his own daughter.

The only available official information on adolescent pregnancies resulting from sexual violence by adult men in Bhutan comes from the Journey of Young Mothers documentation by RENEW (2024). It presents nine cases of teenage pregnancies, with the ages of both victims and perpetrators, for the years 2019, 2020, and 2023. These cases include victims as young as 14 who were sexually assaulted by men significantly older, some even in their 50s, with several perpetrators receiving prison sentences of nine years or more. It can be assumed that these cases were reported only because the victims became pregnant, which triggered legal action. Without the physical evidence of pregnancy, such acts of sexual violence would have remained unreported, the perpetrators unpunished, and the victims disbelieved.

While 18 or 19 are legal ages to marry or have children, it is important to remember that they are still teenagers in a vulnerable stage of life. When an adult man engages in sexual activity with a teenager, especially a minor, the issue of consent becomes legally and morally irrelevant. It is a crime if an adult engages sexually with a minor, with or without their consent. A teenager under 18 does not have the legal capacity to give consent, as stated in the Penal Code of Bhutan. Despite knowing the law, it is deeply troubling that many grown men still believe it is acceptable or appropriate to pursue romantic or sexual relationships with them. Even more disturbing is that they often defend their behavior with the excuse that “she is mature for her age,” a common predatory justification that reveals more about the man’s exploitative intentions than the girl’s perceived maturity.

While there must be continued efforts to strengthen comprehensive sexuality education not just in schools and colleges but also in the wider community, all of us share the responsibility to protect our girls by exposing the role of adult men behind the façade of teenage pregnancy. These may be labeled as teenage pregnancies, but many are outcomes of sexual violence perpetrated by adult men. By recognizing this, we can shift the burden from the teenager or minor to the adults who use their power to harm. In addition, there should be improved surveillance, and future research on teenage pregnancy should not only track its incidence among adolescents but also examine the role of adult men and the power dynamics that lead to these pregnancies.

Ultimately, the most straightforward way to prevent or reduce teenage pregnancy is for adult men to stay away from teenagers and minors. The burden of prevention lies with them, not with their victims. This is not a matter of opinion but a fundamental requirement of law and basic human decency.