Family Planning in India

Stacy OswaldCayla TinneyKim Levine

Global Change 2: Winter 2006 Section 7 Group 6

Overpopulation

• In August of 1999, India’s population became the second in the world to reach one billion.

• Recognizing the need for reducing birth rates, the Indian government has established governmental family planning programs Source: United Nations Population

Division, World Population Prospects: The 1998 Revision, Copyright 1999

High Population Density

Problem: Widespread Poverty

• Although family planning programs in India have improved greatly throughout the country’s history, gender inequality, rooted in cultural norms, continues to cause poor family planning practices nation-wide.

India Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (1992)

History of Family Planning

• Began with independent clinics and conferences

• Led to ten consecutive Five Year Plans

• 1915- first effort of improvement was made when a family planning clinic was opened in Myosre

• 1949- First committee was started : Family Planning Association of India

• With the help of many doctors and professors the first clinic was opened : Kutumb Sudhar Kendra.

• 1951- First conference was held in India to discuss Family Planning.

• First Five Year Plan – under construction during this time. Focusing on child welfare and family planning.

• Topics: Education in schools, increase number of clinics, access to contraceptives, along with further research.

• India’s government was one of the first in the world to put into practice a nationalized family program

• Only country in the world that has a public policy aimed at reducing birth rate in health sector.

• Margaret Sanger- teamed up with Rao in hopes of spreading awareness. (world conference)

• 1952- Delegates from all over the world attended this conference.

• First Five Year Plan implemented

A Significant Figure in India’s Family Planning History

• During the 1950s, hospitals and health care facilities made birth control information available

• The National Population Policy, adopted in 1976 stated that a program aimed at improving poverty in the country was needed to improve success.

• 1970’s programs used coercive methods in order to perform nation- wide vasectomies.

• This established mistrust between government family planning programs and the public which survives to this day.

• In the 1980’s, India began focusing on the sterilization of women. Today, this is the most widely practiced form of family planning.

The Beginning of a Tense Relationship

• Education about the population was brought into the schools curriculum in the Fifth Five Year Plan.

• 1991- India had more then 150,000 facilities where family planning was offered.

• The 1992-93 National Family Health Survey found nearly universal knowledge of family planning.

Current Family Planning:The National Population

Policy• provides a framework

for achieving the objectives of population stabilization and promoting reproductive health within the wider context of sustainable development.

• Goal: achieving a national average total fertility rate (TFR) of 2.1 by the year 2010.

The government’s tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007) outlines efforts in three broad areas:

1. meeting the unmet need for contraception

2. reducing infant and maternal mortality

3. enabling families to achieve their reproductive goals

India Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (1992)

How to Meet these Goals:

By focusing on:

• areas where fertility declines have been lagging

• adolescent reproductive health

• unintended pregnancy and access to safe abortion

• Counseling and access to quality services and follow-up care

Services

• Health and family planning workers are required to regularly visit households in their assigned area

• provide information and counsel and motivate women to adopt appropriate health and family planning practices

• Contraceptives are supplied through the government’s network of health care facilities and with the assistance of NGOs.

“For a healthy family, wait three years before your second child. You can get these family-planning methods from government health workers, hospitals, and health centers for free.State Innovations in Family Planning Services Agency (1996)

Cultural Considerations

“Decisions about contraception are not rational decisions, rather

they are moored in cultural logic.” (Saavala, 1999)

Contraceptive Choices• Female Sterilization• Abortions over contraceptives

“Tying the tubes of women is now extremely simple. Laparoscopy is the newest method. The hospital releases you quickly. The scar is very light. This service is available at hospitals and health centers.”India Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (1996)

Selective Abortion • Falling birthrates

– Two child norm • Assure birth of a son• 2001 census

– 927 females : 1,000 males• Affluent and educated

“We live in a very unequal society. Women are not equal on any level… In our society, we accept violence against women. Violence in America is very open. In India, the violence is often within families. It is socially sanctioned to kill our girls.”

Women and Marriage Customs

• Wives– Young– Uneducated and unaware– Unfamiliar settings

• Mother-in-law– Security– Status

• Sterilization

Why Sons?

• Investment in family• Dowry payments• Education

• Family lineage• Financial support in aging

Education

Impoverished & Rural Areas

• Advantages to more children– Sibling care– Laborers– More income

• More mouths to feed

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The Affected

• Frequent pregnancy• Rural situations• Malnutrition

• No sense of self outside of societal role as mother and wife

-no means to gain perspective

•Thus perpetuate the system.

Poverty

Poor Family Planning Practices

Uneducated WomenPopulation

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•Complex system•Un-empowered women at the heart

Empowering Women• Education• Local efforts

“Change in fertility practices occurs when conditions give women the opportunity to realize their aims and twist cultural

conceptions of womanhood to their advantage.” (Saavala, 1999)

A New Generation: Opportunity for Large-scale

Change

“As young people make more money then their parents, they’re less

willing to obey traditional rules about sex and dating. More women are staying single <and> traditional assumptions

about women’s roles in the home and family are breaking down.”

(Newsweek, March 2006)

Signs of Change• Connecting with America• Bollywood • Challenging assumptions and norms

Questions?

Thank You