Teenagers in trendy clothes throng night clubs, where they dance and swill alcohol before spilling out into the night.
Couples drift off.
The province of West Bengal, of which Calcutta is the capital, has not mandated sex education programmes in state schools, unlike some other Indian states. Worldwide, millions of young people who do not have the knowledge and means to protect themselves are sexually active with catastrophic results. In West Bengal, government health researchers note a rising incidence of unmarried, teenage pregnancies and an increasing frequency of sexually transmitted diseases among both sexes. One gauge of teen sexual activity, according to experts and health providers, is the number of young women who seek out illegal abortionists in a desperate bid to protect their anonymity. But researcher Shireen Jejeebhoy believes that at least half of all unmarried women seeking abortions are adolescents - many less than 15 years old.