. P OPULATION S TABILISATION AND B IRTH C ONTROL In the last century an all-round development in various fields significantly improved the quality of life of the people. However, increased health facilities along with better living conditions had an explosive impact on the growth of population. The world population which was around billion ( million) in rocketed to about billion by and .
billion in . A similar trend was observed in India too. Our population which was approximately million at the time of our independence reached close to the billion mark by and crossed . billion in May .
A rapid decline in death rate, maternal mortality rate (MMR) and infant mortality rate (IMR) as well as an increase in number of people in reproducible age are probable reasons for this. Through our Reproductive Child Health (RCH) programme, though we could bring down the population growth rate, it was only marginal. According to the census report, the population growth rate was less than per cent, i.e., / /year, a rate at which our population could increase rapidly. Such an alarming growth rate could lead to an absolute scarcity of even the basic requirements, i.e., food, shelter and clothing, in spite of significant progress made in those areas.
Therefore, the government was forced to take up serious measures to check this population growth rate. The most important step to overcome this problem is to motivate smaller families by using various contraceptive methods. You might have seen advertisements in the media as well as posters/bills, etc., showing a happy couple with two children with a slogan Hum Do Hamare Do (we two, our two). Many couples, mostly the young, urban, working ones have even adopted an ‘one child norm’.
Statutory raising of marriageable age of the female to years and that of males to years, and incentives given to couples with small families are two of the other measures taken to tackle this problem. Let us describe some of the commonly used contraceptive methods, which help prevent unwanted pregnancies. An ideal contraceptive should be user-friendly, easily available, effective and reversible with no or least side-effects. It also should in no way interfere with the sexual drive, desire and/or the sexual act of the user.
A wide range of contraceptive methods are presently available which could be broadly grouped into the following categories, namely Natural/Traditional, Barrier, IUDs, Oral contraceptives, Injectables, Implants and Surgical methods.