They said violence due to gender difference is unacceptable under all circumstances.

The seminar titled ' Gender, household and social dynamics and its linkages to maternal health and low birth weight in Bangladesh and India' was organised by ICDDR,B in collaboration with the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) at Mohakhali in the city.

Speakers at the seminar stressed the need for disseminating the messages targeting the adolescent girls, as they will be the mothers in future.

Dr Ruchira Tabassum Naved of ICDDR,B along with five researchers from India and the USA presented their research papers at the seminar.

They spoke on health service behaviour, care and support, trade-off in education versus marriage among married adolescent girls, experience of physical violence, food intake and maternal care in newly married female adolescents and their relationship with low-birth-weight infants in Bangladesh and India.

Dr Ruchira said in rural Bangladesh many unmarried adolescent girls obtain healthcare through traditional providers than trained health providers.

She suggested formal healthcare services for adolescent girls.

Dr Ruchira said as the girls are not educated properly and become mother in their adolescent period, they are not much aware of their health and the foetus.

Study findings suggested that guidelines from health providers and international agencies should promote more specific recommendation about food intake, appropriate weight gain, workload and rest during pregnancy.

Manisha Khale of the Institute of Health Management, Pachod (IHMP) said newly married adolescents experience three pattern of physical violence. They experience the violence immediately after the marriage, during pregnancy and after the birth of a child, she added.

The findings also suggested interventions to prevent violence at the community level.

Dr Alka Barua of the Foundation for Research in Health Systems (FRHS), Dr Kavita Sethuraman and Saranga Jain of ICRW also spoke on the occasion.