New Delhi: International agencies seem worried that more and more women in India are going for sterilization while fewer men opt for any form of contraceptives.
Latest data presented the Family Planning 2020, a global partnership, showed female sterilization accounts for almost three fourths of modern contraceptive methods used in India. An additional 3.7percent of the same is IUD (intrauterine device).
On the contrary, male sterilization is merely 2.3 percent, while the use of condoms accounts for 11.4 percent. Use of pills constitutes just 7.5 percent of the modern methods.
India has registered the highest contraceptive prevalence rate for sterilization at 36.9 percent. The United States comes second with 36.3 percent rate, China 33.2 percent and Brazil at 34.2 percent.
“India must increase the number of users of modern methods of contraception so that a greater proportion of all women and girls of reproductive age are served,” says Poonam Muttreja, executive director, Population Foundation of India.
According to her, offering more types of modern methods in family planning programs will result in higher percentages of contraceptive use.
India’s population growth rate has declined significantly from 21.54 percent in 1991-2000 to 17.64 percent in 2001-2011. According to the government data, India’s total fertility rate has also declined from 2.6 in 2008 to 2.3 in 2013. The country is now just 0.2 points away from reaching the replacement level.
India’s southern neighbor Sri Lanka uses a share of modern contraceptive mix. Female sterilization in the island nation is 32.1 percent. At least 28.5 percent opt for injectables, 15 percent pills and 10.4 percent condoms.
Injectable is a form of contraception that is injected into a muscle to stop pregnancy by releasing progestogen into the body.
The internal concern assumes significance in the wake of India’s rising population and the government’s continuous efforts to contain the decadal growth rate. Various international agencies, including the United Nations, have projected that India will be the most populous nation by 2022, The Times of India reported.
The Indian government has recently taken steps to improve the coverage and create more awareness about family planning, mainly in rural areas. To ensure a greater thrust on spacing methods, the health ministry has also created specific schemes for Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) to ensure spacing in births.
Under the schemes, ASHAs provide counseling to newly married couples to ensure delay of two years before having their first child after marriage and couples who already have a child are encouraged to have a spacing of three years after the birth of the first child.
The ministry is currently implementing such schemes in 18 states.
Besides sterilization, the government also tries to increase the basket of contraceptives and making them available under the national family planning program. India has recently introduced injectable contraceptive as part of national family planning program.
So far, 24 states have already achieved replacement level fertility. Nearly 60 percent of the population resides in states where either replacement fertility is already reached or will soon meet the target. These include the southern states, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Punjab.