Lucknow: More than three fourth of UP’s 75 districts score poorly on the population control front. Numbering 57, these districts have a high number of couples not using family planning methods.

This is evident in the high total fertility rate (TFR) of these districts or the number of children born to a woman in the reproductive age span (15-49 years). A TFR of 3 or more is considered to be high while that of 2.1 is ideal. UP’s TFR is 3.1 while that of India is 2.3.

The four UP districts of Shravasti (5.5), Bahraich, Balrampur (both 4.9) and Siddhartnagar (4.8) account for the highest TFR in the country.

It is for this that these districts have found a place in the Union government’s intensified population control programme called Mission Parivar Vikas. This covers 145 high-fertility districts across seven states: UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Assam.

The state of affairs clearly suggests that the health machinery has failed to undertake population control programmes effectively, as shown by the national family health survey data-4.

For example: only 31.7% couples in UP use modern contraceptive methods, which means that about 68% do not use any contraception. Of these, 18.1% couples have no access to contraceptives.

Interaction with women on the field suggests the same. Noor Bano, a 19-year-old in Shravasti’s Chaugoi village is pregnant with her second baby. For her, the response to a question on family planning was prolonged silence followed by a smile.

“Children are born by the will of god,” she said on being intrigued further.

In Bahraich city, Bina Devi, a 43-year-old mother of eight said, “Parivar niyojan matlab operation (Family planning means surgery),”. In Gonda, Gita Devi said, “Yeh sab jhanjhat hai (All this talk about family planning is troublesome).”

Health officials who have recognized that myths, misconceptions and fear of complications or side effects are barriers to family planning now bank on Mission Parivar Vikas for improvement in the scenario.

Mission Parivar Vikas aims to bring down UP’s TFR from 3.1 to 2.1 by 2025.

“Inclusion of two new contraceptive methods is our biggest hope. Data suggests that adding one contraceptive method in an existing basket of choice results in an 8-12% increase in the use of modern contraceptives,” said Alok Kumar, mission director, National Health Mission UP.

Kumar stated that awareness and sensitization have also been re-modelled to simplify health messages.

