Only 27 percent of young men and 17 percent of young women had in-depth awareness of HIV/AIDS against the national average of 50 percent.

'The findings confirm the need for sex education,' said Ram.

Just one in 10 young men and one in 20 young women had attended family planning or sex education programmes. 'Youth, nevertheless, were overwhelmingly in favour of the provision of family planning or sex education to young people,' she said.

The findings of the study show that young men and women have limited awareness of sexual and reproductive matters such as how pregnancy occurs, HIV and safe sex practices and contraception.

Only one-third of youth (35-36 percent) were aware that a woman can get pregnant while having sex for the first time. Around 36 percent of young men and 47 percent of young women did not know that 18 years is the legal minimum age at marriage for women.

The study noted that early marriage was followed by early pregnancy - 63 percent of the women had their first pregnancy before they were aged 18. The first pregnancy occurred within six months of marriage for 39 percent of young women.

'Early pregnancy - before the girl's body is fully developed and prepared for pregnancy - can have major repercussions for young girls' health and also for the health of the baby they carry. Appropriate measures should be adopted to postpone marriage and postpone pregnancy among girls getting married at an early age,' said Shireen Jejeebhoy, senior Associate of Population Council of India.

(Nityanand Shukla can be contacted at nityanand.s@ians.in)