Reproductive and sexual health of the youths engaged in tourism Goa, India

Usha Ram, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Rupali Bhat, Smt. Parbati Bai Chowgale Cultural Foundation College of Arts and Science

Over the years, tourist arrivals in Goa has increased multifold and the ratio of domestic tourist to foreign tourists has changed drastically from about 94:06 in 1965 to 80:20 during 2002 which has implications for sexual health. The study is based on the indepth interviews with youths in the four coastal talukas-the hot spots amongst the international tourists. The study very clearly brings out that majority of the youths involved in tourism related services were school dropouts and were into sex-tourism as they perceived this as an easy and attractive (lucrative) way of earning fast money. Besides educational status, their life style (including drug abuse, fondness for foreign products etc.) too appeared to be an important reason for their involvement in the sex-tourism.