Abstract:
Free Trade Zones (FTZ) of Sri Lanka, a byproduct of economic policy reforms initiated in
1977, not only gave leadership to an industrialization process in the country but also
promoted large scale worker migration and congruence of young working age population
in and around industrial establishments. A majority (74%) of such workers, who had
migrated from rural areas, are young (17-24 age group) unmarried females in the
primarily reproductive age group. The peer group culture of youth and young adults (17-
24, 25-32) together with other changing agents such as the transitional socio-economic
and cultural values of the society have introduced new behavioural facets in the
traditional life styles of young people specially in the sphere of sexuality of youth and
adults. Hence, it is surmised that the target population is at risk of being exposed to
reproductive ill-health through unhealthy sexual experimentations and that they face
unhealthy consequences such as induced abortion, sexually transmitted diseases due to
such behaviour. Several projects have identified and highlighted reproductive health
needs of FTZ working population, but their needs have not been adequately assessed
and addressed especially in the sphere of implications of attitudinal changes and social
settings on reproductive health of young people. The paper investigates some selected
reproductive health determinants such as intimate relationships, knowledge on sex
education, contraception and sexually transmitted diseases, of FTZ migrant female
workers, in-order to assess, the contraceptive use service gap amongst unmarried
adolescents and young adults and address their current unmet needs. The data for the
study has been obtained from a sample survey of female migrant workers in the FTZKatunayake,
conducted in September 2002. The sample consisted of 400 migrant
females randomly selected from the Katunayake FTZ.
