Free sample essay on Family Planning. Family Planning has been adopted as our national policy and a lot of money is being spent on it. Yet we are far from achieving our targets. India’s population is increasing fast in comparison to its dwindling and depleting resources.
Family Planning has been adopted as our national policy and a lot of money is being spent on it. Yet we are far from achieving our targets. India’s population is increasing fast in comparison to its dwindling and depleting resources. This rapid growth of our population has resulted in a very high pressure on our resources of food, employment, housing, clothing, education and alleviation of poverty. With the phenomenal advancement in science, technology, medicine, health and physical-care, the mortality rate has come down considerably but the rate of birth has not come down commensurately. In the absence of effective control and check on our population, all our Five Year Plans and developmental schemes are bound to fail. As a result, about half of our population has been living below the poverty line. Millions of our fellow citizens are deprived of basic necessities of life while the gap between the rich and the poor has been increasing.
In spite of huge campaigns and well organised propaganda, the advantages of a small family have not been accepted by the masses. India consists mainly of villages and rural population. About 80% of its population lives in villages. They are mostly ignorant, uneducated and superstitious. They still regard children as gifts from God. They believe in luck and fate and believe that every newborn child brings its own luck. As such, they cannot be motivated to have Planned Parenthood with ‘two children’ norm. The much desired people’s participation in the family planning and welfare programmes is not there. The majority of rural masses have yet to accept the various contraceptive methods of family planning and family welfare.
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It is in keeping with our democratic set-up that the family welfare programme is a voluntary one. People are free to choose their own methods of family planning that suit them best. People are being involved in the movement through social institutions, voluntary agencies, social workers and people’s representatives. It is good that no coercive measures are adopted but lack of people’s involvement to a desired level has been a real source of concern to the people behind the movement. It is high time that some mildly drastic steps are also taken to curb our ever-increasing population. Unless and until we have proper check on our population growth, it is almost impossible to improve the quality of life and standard of living. The programme of family planning needs to be vigorously pursued.
During the Emergency some drastic and coercive measures were adopted, which were resisted by the people. They also resulted in the overthrow of the government, headed by Mrs. India Gandhi, in the general election. Therefore, it has been made totally voluntary. The programme includes maternal and child healthcare, their nutrition and family welfare. The various schemes related to family planning and welfare is implemented through the state governments, for which the Centre provides complete assistance. There is a network of primary health centres and sub-centres, in the villages of the country to popularize the movement. The number of these centres is being increased further. Nimrods or condoms, oral pills, contraceptive jelly, creams, etc. are being distributed free of charge through these health centres and other agencies.
These are also available at subsidized rates at various retail outlets, chemist shops and pharmaceutical establishments.
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Much improved sterilization and tubectomies operation facilities now exist at various hospitals, dispensaries, and primary health-centres throughout the country. Special camps and campaigns are also being organised in villages and towns for this purpose. Financial and other incentives are also given to the people who voluntarily undergo these operations. Research activities are going on at Family Welfare Training and Research Centre, Mumbai, Central Health Education Bureau, New Delhi, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi in the areas of demography, reproductive biology and fertility control. In order to provide maternal and child health-care services to more and more women and babies, the post-natal programme has now been extended to over 1000 hospitals spread in villages and towns all over the country.
The raising of the minimum age of marriage to 18 for girls and 21 for boys, coupled with the legalization of termination of undesired pregnancies have been steps in the right direction. The family planning and welfare programme in our country was launched officially in 1952 and since then, there has been commendable progress. There is a good deal of consciousness among the educated urban people about family planning and use of contraceptives and yet we can learn something more from China in this respect.
No doubt there is much and appreciable awareness among the people about family planning and mother and child healthcare. More and more people have come to realise the many positive advantages that are there in a small and well- planned family, and yet there is still a vast gap between awareness and acceptance of the various measures of family planning. To bridge this gap there should be a number of incentives and disincentives. A useful and progressive family planning programme should necessarily seek the help of more and more voluntary agencies, social workers, Panchayati- members, village medical practitioners, caste elders, religious groups and village nurses and dais. What we need is an integrated and methodical approach to the problem.
