How India's family planning programme places well-being and unlocking the potential of women at its centre

The story of India in the 21st century has been one of extraordinary growth and innovation.

We have revolutionised the data and information industry , and we produce medicine cheaper

than anywhere in the world. We eliminated polio under incredibly challenging circumstances.

But India has not even come close to reaching her full potential, because we have only

leveraged half of our resources into that effort. We've yet to unlock much of the potential of

the other half: India's women.

Only when India's women are on an equal footing with India's men will we be the nation we

want to become. The government has already taken significant steps to provide health and

development to women.

In India, though maternal and infant mortality have dropped precipitously in recent years, 200

women still die every day in child birth. Part of the problem is that not all pregnant women

have easy access to the best ante-natal care.The Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan,

which was launched late last year, guarante es every woman in her second or third trimester

free ante-natal care by private doctors at designated hospitals all over the country on the 9th

of every month.

More than 50 lakh women have been given quality ante-natal checkups under this

scheme.More than 56 lakh pregnant women have been immunised under Mission

Indradhanush and the MAA campaign, through awareness and counselling, continues to

promote better health and nutrition to mothers and children at community level. Family

planning is one of the most critical and long standing health programmes in India. Here too

India has made impressive progress, with the fertility rate dropping from 2.7 to 2.1 over the

last decade. But even today 31 million married women are not using any contraception at all;

about two thirds of the rest are using sterilisation, which is effective but doesn't help women

delay their first pregnancy or space their later children at healthy intervals.

As a result, too many women are either having more children than they want, having children

sooner than they want, or not leaving enough time between children for their bodies to

recover fully from pregnancy . Realising this massive gap, the government has introduced

three new contraceptive methods into the health system, including injectables and a once-aweek

pill, so that more and more women will be able to plan their families.

Among those women who do get pregnant, almost half are between the ages of 15 and 25, so

we're also starting an intense awareness campaign aimed at this age group to make sure that

they know the contraceptive options and feel empowered to exercise them. A complementary

campaign will target men, since contraception isn't always a choice a woman can make on

her own. The better men understand family planning, the more supportive they're likely to be

when it comes to planning their families together with their wives.

The need for better contraception and ante-natal care is not spread evenly around the country

. A quarter of India's mothers who live in the poorest areas are twice as likely to see their

babies die than the rest. That is why we launched Mission Parivar Vikas on World Population

Day on Tuesday , doubling down our efforts in 145 districts in 7 states districts

Responsible for half of the country's infant deaths for intensive improvement in family planning and ante-natal care services.

As part of this Mission we want to ensure that supplies are available at all facilities at all

times for which we are developing a robust Family Planning Logistics Management

Information System. This is a web and mobile based decision-making tool to monitor and

manage the flow of contraceptive supplies to reduce inventory fluctuations and improve

the programme's effectiveness at all public health facilities.

We estimate that in 2017 nearly 137 million women in India are using modern method of

contraception. As a result of this usage, 39 million unintended pregnancies will be prevented;

nearly 12 million unsafe abortions, 16 million total births and 43,000 maternal deaths will be

averted. We firmly believe that family planning is critical for our nation's economic

development, and is a big first step towards growth, equality and sustainable development

that opens the door to opportunity and prosperity for women and families.

Source: The Times of India