Niti Post
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November 21, 2022
India’s family planning measures got appreciation on a global stage with the country receiving Excellence in Leadership in Family Planning (EXCELL) Awards -2022. The award was received at the International Conference on Family Planning held in Pattaya, Thailand.
To begin with, India came out as the only country which bagged this award in the ‘country category’ at the conference. Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya while appreciating the efforts being made in the field of family planning said, “The award is a recognition of India’s efforts under PM Narendra Modi’s leadership towards ensuring access to quality family planning choices based on right information & reliable services”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has long been stressing the issue of population explosion in the country. In fact, on August 15, 2019, while addressing the nation on independence day, he said that citizens with small families need to be held up as role model as such decisions is an expression of patriotism and love for the nation.
What is the International Conference of Family Planning?
The conference focuses on universal access to family planning. It provides a platform to discuss various issues pertaining to family planning and awareness about the same. Presently, more than 120 countries, numerous organizations, and individuals are members of this conference. This year, the event registered participation of around 3,500 delegates excluding the people who attended it virtually.
Current Scenario of Family Planning schemes
As per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the country has made considerable progress in adopting modern contraceptive methods that are helping in enabling couples to make conscious and informed decisions regarding family planning.
Some of the flagship schemes of the government are –
National Family Health Survey (NFHS)
First conducted in 1992-93 and the latest one in 2019-21 – NFHS 5 is a survey that is conducted nationwide in a representative sample of households. The survey is being conducted with an aim to provide high-quality data on the health and family welfare situation of the country and simultaneously highlight the main issues pertaining to the areas. It comes under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and International Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai is the nodal agency for coordination and technical guidance for the survey.
Further, NFHS 5 highlights that the overall Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) has registered a substantial increase from 54 percent to 67 percent. CPR indicates the percentage of women who comes under the age of 15-49, married or in-union, who are currently using, or whose sexual partner is using, at least one method of contraception.
In addition, the survey also stated that 68% of modern method contraceptive users obtain their methods from the public health sector.
Fertility, infant and child mortality, the practice of family planning, reproductive health and many such areas are covered during the survey. However, the latest NFHS-5 witnessed an addition of some new areas like preschool education, access to toilet facilities, bathing practices during mensuration along with methods and reasons for abortion. For the very first time, NFHS-5 also included the percentage of women and men who have ever used the internet.
Mission Parivar Vikas
The mission is one of the flagship schemes of the Government. Under this, 145 districts in 7 states of Assam, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh are identified to be in high focus based on the Total Fertility Rate (TFR).
The above-identified 145 districts have a high TFR compared to rest of the country and collectively they constitute 28% of India’s population. Further, the mission focuses on the acceleration of access to high-quality family planning choices based on information, reliable services and supplies within a rights-based framework.
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