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The rapid growth of
population is a world problem of the utmost gravity. In India, where inadequate
food supplies are a serious threat to development, the result of the “population
explosion” can be especially acute. This can whittle down all our efforts
towards betterment and be a source of ill health and unhappiness to the
individual families. In mid-1966, India's population passed the 500 million
mark, and it is growing at the rate of more than 12 million a year. India's
population is the second largest in the world; it comprises 14% of the world's
population; yet, this population must be supported on 2.4% of the world's land
area.
The Government of
India recognised the threat of overpopulation and launched the world's first
official Family Planning Programme in 1952. Together with the need for increased
food production, Family Planning took its place at the very centre of" the
development effort. A nationwide organisation is being built, and large sums
have been allocated to this high priority programme. Every proved contraceptive
method is being promoted. A widespread mass education programme is underway.
Training and research centres in all aspects of the programme have been
established. The overall objective of the programme is to achieve a reduction in
the country's annual birth rate from 40 per thousand to 25, in the next 10
years. The cooperation and active participation of all the people in this
National Task is of the utmost importance.
On the occasion of
the observance of the Family Planning Week, the P & T Department is bringing out
a special postage stamp-on the 12th December, 1966.
The Family Planning
Programme in India is one of the important elements in the country's total
strategy of socioeconomic growth. It aims, on the one hand, to create in man
the urge for a better life for himself and for his offspring and, on the other,
to make available to him some of the essential means of economic and social
betterment.
The basis of the
programme is entirely voluntary. It must draw, on its own strength, people,
particularly those living in villages, to the vast network of primary health
centres and sub-centres where health, family planning, nutrition and allied
services are available for the asking.
Launched officially
in 1952, the family planning programme was, in the initial years, i.e., under
the First Five Year Plan and to a considerable extent under the Second Plan
also, more or less clinic-based. Later, under the Third Plan, greater emphasis
was placed on the extension education approach to make it community-based as
well as on expansion of services to meet the demand that this approach created.
The process was carried further under the Fourth Plan. Non-official
organisations, including voluntary bodies, were encouraged, given incentives
and financial support, to take the programme to the doorsteps of the common
people and to help the government in converting it into a mass movement.
Under the current
Plan, integrated health, family planning and allied services have been included
in the 'minimum needs programme'. High priority has been accorded to rural and
backward areas. Research in bio-medical, motivational and other areas has been
intensified to develop new contraceptive methods and devices, identify specific
problems of specific people and design strategies and campaigns which may prove
more effective.
More than 80,000
medical, para-medical and other personnel are engaged in the programme today. In
the rural areas alone, the number of primary health centres (one for every
block) and sub-centres (one for 10,000 people) exceeds 5,300 and 35,000
respectively. In the urban areas, in addition to hospitals and dispensaries,
there are several family welfare planning and postpartum centres. The package
of family planning services in these centres includes sterilisation, IUD and
conventional contraceptives.
The programme is
financed totally by the Central Government. Its implementation is done through
the State Governments. The Central Family Planning Council, of which the Union
Minister of Health and Family Planning is the Chairman, is the apex body which
helps the government in formulating broad policies and supervising their
implementation from time to time.
There are in India
today about 104 million couples in the reproductive age-group (age of wife
15-45). Nearly 19 per cent of these couples are currently protected against
conception through voluntary adoption of one method or the other. The birth rate
has come down from 41.7 in 1961 to 34.5 per thousand in 1974. The Fifth Plan
target is to bring it down to 30. To achieve this target it is necessary that
about 35 per cent of the total number of eligible couples accept family
planning.
Now, as part of the
National Population Policy, family planning has been accorded a very high place
in the national order of priorities. It has been placed at the centre of all
development activities and is a vital component of the total strategy of
socioeconomic growth.
The programme has
been picking up fast. The people are accepting it in increasingly large numbers
and there is every hope that. The birth rate of 30 per thousand set for the
Fifth Plan will be achieved.
The Posts and
Telegraphs Department feels privileged to associate itself with the cause of
family planning by bringing out a commemorative stamp. |
