High teenage fertility in some areas remains a cause of concern in India even as the fertility rate has stabilised across the country, the Health Ministry said in its Family Planning Vision-2030 document released.
Details –
- It added that participation of men will be encouraged in the family planning programme and that lack of access to contraceptives had been identified as a priority challenge area.
- While multiple factors have been identified that explain low contraceptive use among married adolescents and young women, two most important factors are child marriage and teenage pregnancy.
- Over 118 districts reported high percentage of teenage pregnancies and are mostly concentrated in Bihar (19), West Bengal (15), Assam (13), Maharashtra (13), Jharkhand (10), Andhra Pradesh (7), and Tripura (4).
- Additionally, over 44% of the districts in India reported high percentage of women marrying before they reach the age of 18. These districts were in Bihar (17), West Bengal (8), Jharkhand (7), Assam (4), two each in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
About the Family Planning Partnership –
- In July 2012, the London Summit on Family Planning was held to reignite the global commitment to meeting women’s unmet need for contraception.
- The summit set a goal of reaching 120 million women and girls with modern contraceptives by 2020.
- This summit also launched a new partnership and platform — Family Planning 2020 (FP2020). FP2020 was launched as a global partnership that supports the rights of women and girls to decide, freely, and for themselves, whether, when, and how many children they want to have.
- During 2012-20, India added more than 1.5 crore additional users for modern contraceptives thereby increasing the modern contraceptive use substantially.
- After 2020, this pivotal partnership, centred solely on family planning, was extended in the form of FP2030.
- FP2030 is the successor to FP2020.
National Family Planning Summit 2022 –
- Recently, National Family Planning Summit 2022 was organised by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
- During the Summit, the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare unveiled the India Family Planning 2030 Vision document.
- The Summit was organised to recognise the achievements of various states/UTs in family planning and create awareness about the importance of family planning.
Family Planning 2030 Commitments –
- Priorities identified — Strategies to overcome teenage childbearing, lack of male participation in awareness programmes, migration and lack of access to contraceptives have been identified as priorities by the document.
- Teenage Pregnancies –
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- The document highlights that there has been a steady decline in teenage childbearing, from 7.9% in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) to 6.8% (NFHS-5).
- However, high teenage fertility in some areas still remains a cause of concern.
- Over 118 districts reported high percentage of teenage pregnancies and are mostly concentrated in following states –
- Bihar (19), West Bengal (15), Assam (13), Maharashtra (13), Jharkhand (10), Andhra Pradesh (7), and Tripura (4).
- Additionally, over 44% of the districts in India reported high percentage of women marrying before they reach the age of 18.
- Lack of Contraceptives –
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- Modern contraceptive use among married adolescents and young women, although increasing over time, has been rather low.
- Lack of access to contraceptives had been identified as a priority challenge area.
- Increased participation of Men – The document added that participation of men will be encouraged in the family planning programme.
- Population stabilisation –
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- As per the document, the country’s population is expected to continue to grow until mid-century (due to population momentum).
- However, the population growth will decline substantially.
- The Central government had recently said in the Parliament that it sought to stabilise the population by 2045.
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