Family Planning in India : “Hum Do, Hamare Do"
The Indian government has been pivotal towards efforts of family planning. From 1965 to 2009, contraceptive use has tripled – from 13% of married women in 1970 to 48% in 2009. India’s fertility rate has halved from 5.7 to 2.4 from 1966 to 2012, although the national fertility rate remains high, creating concern for long-term population growth. India sums up to 1,000,000 people to its population every 20 days.
In 2016, India’s total fertility rate was 2.30 births per woman, and 15.6 million abortions were performed. High abortions rates follow a high number of unintended pregnancies, with a rate of 70.1 unintended pregnancies per 1000 women aged between 15 to 49 years. Overall, India’s abortions make up for one-third of pregnancies and out of all pregnancies occurring, almost half are not planned. On the Demographic Transition Model, India falls in the third stage due to diminished birth rates and death rates. By 2026, it is predicted to be in stage four once the Total Fertility Rate reaches 2.1.
Family Planning History
In 1952 the National Family Planning Programme was started. The programme’s chief objectives were: Lower fertility rates and slow population growth as a means to propel economic growth. Over the course of the years, the preferred method of birth control changed from the rhythm method to IUDs and sterilisation. In the 1970s, the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had conducted a forced sterilisation programme which resulted to people having an aversion to sterilisation. By the year 1996, the family planning programme had triumphantly prevented an estimated 16.8 crore births.
India Family Planning National Programme
In 1952 India was the first country to launch a national programme for family planning. The family planning programme has been chiefly in place due to the efforts of the Indian government. This programme had experienced a massive conversion from its initial days when the focus was on a clinical procedure to the present day when the focus is on reproductive health and the reduction of maternal and child mortality, infant mortality rates, and morbidity.
National Population Policy (NPP) was launched in 2000 and has helped reduce fertility rates. As part of the programme, the government has instituted several clinics for family planning and reproductive health. There is also information through media, propagating family planning, the requirement for spacing between children, and having fewer children per couple.
The government has also familiarised people with the slogan, “Hum Do, Humare Do”, for promoting the Two-Child Norm. There are also penalties, as no government jobs if the person has more than two children. However, this has also failed in some regions leading to more sex-selective abortions.
Contraceptive Usage
Women in India are not given adequate guidance on contraception usage and what they are planting in their bodies. From 2005 to 2006, data was collected to designate only 15.6% of women using contraception in India were informed of all their options and what those options actually do. The use of contraceptives has been growing gradually in India. In 1970, 13% of married women used modern contraceptive techniques, which rose to 35% by 1997 and 48% by 2009.
Contraception awareness is near-universal amongst married women in India. However, by 2009, 76% of married Indians reported important problems in obtaining a choice of contraceptive techniques. In 2009, 48.4% of married women were expected to use a contraceptive method. About three-fourths of these were using female sterilisation, which is the most common birth-control method in India. Condoms, at a mere 3%, were the next most common method.
Contraception usage varied greatly among Indian states, with Meghalaya being the lowest at 20%, closely followed by Bihar and UP with a reported usage of 30% . It is essential to record that sterilisation is a general practice in India. In India, contraceptive practices are skewed heavily towards terminal procedures like sterilisation, which means that contraception is practised essentially for birth limitation rather than birth planning. It is natural to use camps to enforce sterilisation. This method can be executed with or without approval.
Modern Methods
Advancement of reproductive health and family planning has been restricted. In 2016, India’s infant mortality rate was 34.6 per 1000 live births, and by 2015, maternal mortality remains at 174 per 100,000 live births. Leading maternal mortality reasons include sepsis, haemorrhage, complexities of abortion, hypertensive disorders, infection, premature birth, birth asphyxia, pneumonia, and diarrhoea for infants.
In 2005, the Government of India founded the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to address some of these issues amongst others. The objective of the NRHM involves the provision of adequate health-care to rural areas, particularly to poor and vulnerable populations.
Through the NRHM, special stipulations have been made to discuss concerns for reproductive health, primarily for the youngsters who are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviours and less inclined to visit health facilities than adults. Conclusively, the NRHM aims to expedite India towards the Millennium Development Goal objectives for reproductive health.
