NEW DELHI : The 11th World Congress on Adolescent Health, ÂInvesting in Adolescent Health  the Future is Now will be held in New Delhi from October 27-29. The Congress is held every four years by the International Association for Adolescent Health.

The world is home to 1.2 billion adolescents, and India has the largest population of adolescents in the world  253 million.

The mortality of adolescents globally stands at staggering 1.3 million deaths per year. Unintended injuries such as road traffic accidents and drowning are the leading causes of death among adolescents, together with self-harm, interpersonal violence, communicable diseases and teenage pregnancy.

Tobacco, alcohol and other substance use contribute to health concerns among adolescents. These are associated with unemployment, accidents, depression and suicide during adolescence. Yet, rather than a passing phase, these behaviours and states risk reverberate across the life-course, contributing to the future burden of disease in adults and to that of the next generation.

Globally, adolescence is a period which encapsulates tremendous change in relation to critical life events such as transitions from education to employment, and formation of families and parenting. Adolescence is also the period in which individuals experience the greatest change in health and health-related behaviours across their lifetime. Well recognized as a time of risk for health, increasingly adolescence is now accepted as a period of opportunity for health, in which individuals gain the assets and resources to sustain health across the life-course.

The agenda for Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and the new Global Strategy on WomenÂs ChildrenÂs and Adolescents Health have brought adolescence to the centre-stage. These agendas recognize the opportunities and contribution of adolescence to achieving a wide array of global health priorities including improvements in communicable diseases (e.g. HIV) and non-communicable diseases, womenÂs health, mental health, nutrition, and more.

The World Congress is being organized with the support of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) and MAMTA Health Institute for Mother and Child is hosting the World Congress with a consortium of partners.

The World Congress is anticipating around 800 international and national delegates including adolescent health experts from across the globe, academia, representatives from MoHFW, national and global representatives of UN organizations, youth leaders from several countries including India who have made a difference in their communities, national and international NGOs, donor organizations, policy makers and corporates.