In the late 20thcentury women's groups (often called feminists) became a major civil society actor, exerting an influence on population policy. They have raised issues about women's autonomy, contraception and abortion. Feminist groups have supported the idea of birth control as it empowers them to decide how many children they should have and whether they should produce children or work. Yet, they have raised objections to a few family planning methods included in the programmes of certain countries such as female sterilization, abortion, emergency pills and Depo-Provera ( injections) on health grounds as well as social grounds. According to them, several family planning methods such as Depo-Provera have been introduced in the programme without examining their adverse health impacts and informing women about the risks. Some of them who reject abortion on moral grounds say that abortion works to the advantage of the exploitative male and not for the female. It makes the male free from all financial, legal or social obligations associated with childbirth by eliminating the possibility of birth. Feminists maintain that the males have made the females a perpetual and re-usable sex object.
Feminists have also viewed seriously that due to patriarchy, if families decide to go for sterilization they go for female sterilization rather than male sterilization, though the latter is simpler and safer than the former method.
Apart from feminists groups, the government needs support from other non-government organizations (NGOs) for:
Generating public opinion
Implementation of programme (public-private-partnership)
Independent feedback on programme implementation through operations research
Innovative ideas
Resources
Support of local communities
Linkages with development initiatives
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