India's National Family Planning Program: Simplified Overview

Komal Bajpai

Author

Updated: 28-01-2025 at 7:22 AM

India’s National Family Planning Programme is primarily aimed at providing better reproductive care, regulating population size and controlling maternal mortality and morbidity and child mortality every year. It was started in the year 1952 and is the first one for the global level wherein numerous services and government schemes are provided to enhance the use of family planning facilities to build a healthy nature for families.

Overview

The table showcases the key highlights of India’s National Family Planning Programme:

Scheme Name	India’s National Family Planning Programme
Launch Year	1952
Key Services	Free contraceptives, sterilisation, counselling, post-partum care
Methods	Permanent (e.g., sterilisation) and temporary (e.g., condoms, injections)
Special Schemes	Mission Parivar Vikas, Janani Suraksha Yojana, FPIS
Beneficiary Compensation	Male: ₹1,100; Female: ₹250-600; Incentives for contraceptive use

What Is the National Family Planning Program?

The National Family Planning Program was formulated for the first time in India in 1952. Before then, it was the world’s first such program, and its functions have expanded not only to act as a tool for managing population growth but also as tools for encouraging healthy reproductive behaviour and preventing deaths of mothers, infants, and children.

Objectives Of The Family Planning Program

The Family Planning Program aims to stabilise population growth and improve maternal and child health. It promotes responsible family planning practices to ensure a healthy and sustainable future.

The following are the objectives of the Family Planning Program;

Access to Services: It helps in a way so that all possible couples empowered for family planning get information, supplies or any kind of family planning services that are needed.
Contraceptive Use: Its agenda is to expand the use of modern methods of contraception to enhance couples’ protection of fertility.
Healthier Lives: An additional target is enhancing the quality of families' reproductive health, which implies a decrease in mortality and morbidity related to childbirth for both mothers and infants.

National Family Planning Program Goals

The government program focuses on reducing fertility rates and ensuring access to contraceptives. It also aims to decrease maternal and infant mortality rates by promoting reproductive health.

Below are the important goals of the National Family Programme

Universal Access: Make sure all people have access to sexuality and reproductive health care, including information on family planning.
Fertility Reduction: A total Fertility Rate (TFR) of less than 1 needs to be ensured. 7, implying a reduced rate of births or births per woman.
More Choices: Increase the choice of contraceptive methods, including injectable Antara and weekly contraceptive pills, Chhaya.
Healthy Birth Spacing: On family planning, stress for the couple to space their children by enlightening them on how to plan for the number of children they want.
Better Sterilisation Services: Increase the capacity of sterilisation and promote awareness of the services offered.
Strengthening Supply Chains: Strengthen the adequate availability of family planning commodities for instance; contraceptives in the country.

What Services Are Available Under The Family Planning Program?

The government program offers free contraceptives, sterilisation procedures, counselling services, and pregnancy-related care. It also provides access to health education and awareness campaigns. The program offers various services, including:

Sterilisation Services: Some of the permanent methods such as female sterilisation and male vasectomy are offered on certain days in health facilities.
New Contraceptives: Previously DMP only offered oral pills but the combination of pills, injectable contraception such as Antara and weekly pills such as Chhaya are also included in the program.
Post-Partum Services: Women can go for PPIUCD and PAIUCD contraceptives after they have given birth.
Home Delivery of Contraceptives: ASHA workers provide condoms and pills under the HDC Scheme by directly providing them to each home.
Awareness Campaigns: It includes media such as family planning promotional campaigns, special events and public lectures.

What Are The Methods Of Family Planning Available?

This is a lot of information needed on family planning even more so because there seems to be a lot of confusion about the methods of family planning that are in the market to be used.

Permanent Methods:

Type	Description
Female Sterilisation	This involves operations such as Minilap Tubectomy, Laparoscopic sterilisation, and Postpartum sterilisation.
Male Sterilisation	Also called No-Scalpel Vasectomy

Temporary Methods:

Type	Description
Condoms	It is readily accessible as well as not complicated to apply.
Oral Pills	Proper antiepileptic pills which are in use today include Mala N one pill taken daily for contraception.
Chhaya Pills	Novel pills once at the start, the second one in one week for the first three months and once every week thereafter.
Emergency Pills	Taken in cases of accidents when standard birth control methods are not available.
IUCD (Intrauterine Contraceptive Device)	An object placed in the uterus to stop conception from occurring.
Antara Injection	An injected contraceptive that happens to be effective for ninety days.

What Special Schemes Are Part Of The Family Welfare Program?

Government Schemes like Mission Parivar Vikas and Janani Suraksha Yojana are part of the program. These govt schemes promote family planning and ensure maternal and child health services.

Some of the special schemes encompassed in the Family Welfare Program are as follows;

Home Delivery of Contraceptives (HDC): ASHA workers go to people’s homes and avail contraceptives to them.
Ensuring Spacing at Birth (ESB): ASHA workers advise young couples to space their births correctly; two years after marriage and three between the children.
Family Planning Indemnity Scheme (FPIS): Pays for any medical treatment and expenses which arise from the consequences, failure or death that may result from sterilisation.

What Compensation Is Available For Beneficiaries?

Beneficiaries undergoing sterilisation receive monetary compensation as per government guidelines. This compensation encourages participation and offsets related expenses. The government program provides financial incentives for beneficiaries and service providers:

Male Beneficiaries: ₹1,100
Female Beneficiaries: ₹250 for APL cases; ₹600 for BPL and SC-ST cases.
PPIUCD/PAIUCD Insertion: ₹300
Antara Injection: Rs 100 for each dose.

Conclusion

The National Family Welfare Programme of India is very essential to Check population growth, enhance Reproductive Health and also help decrease Maternal & Child mortality. Through these government schemes and programs, several families across the country can be supported with the right care so that they can have a healthier future.

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