Module 9: Population Policy and Family Planning Programmes
  Lecture 32: Family Planning Programme and Beyond Family Planning Measures to Control Fertility
 

ADVANTAGES OF BEYOND FAMILY PLANNING MEASURES

The advantages of beyond family planning methods are many. First of all, in general, the beyond family planning measures are acceptable to all sections of society. How can there be an opposition to promoting education, reducing child mortality, extenuating regional inequalities, fighting domestic violence against women, empowering them and providing reproductive health facilities? They are on their own the major goals of social development. Whether they help in the effective implementation of population policy or not, they must be vigorously pursued. Secondly, the beyond family planning measures are the factors that will reduce the fertility levels on a sustained basis. Thirdly, they will also improve the quality of family planning acceptance and make it demand driven rather than enforced by the state policies. In the past, stress on family planning had often resulted in cooking up of data, forced sterilization and poor quality of acceptors (old, those who have already produced 6-7 children, those who are unlike to produce a child in the future for biological or social reasons, etc.). On the other hand, stress on beyond family planning measures improves the participation of people in policy implementation. Fourthly, stress on the beyond family planning measures lead to better coordination between different government departments and more effective implementation of all programmes at the grassroots level.

LIMITATIONS OF BEYOND FAMILY PLANNING MEASURES

Beyond family planning measures have certain limitations too. They have a long gestation period to yield any effect; it may not be advisable to wait for socio-economic development to take place so that fertility can decline. Waiting for this to happen would mean prolonging the period of demographic transition and raising the level of population at which it will ultimately stabilize. Beyond family planning measures involve huge monetary costs as well as trained manpower which may not be readily available. Sometimes putting a greater stress on them in the middle of family planning programme may leave the impression that the government is not serious about population control.