Family Welfare Programme

About Family Welfare Programme :

India launched the National Family Welfare Programme in 1951 with the objective of reducing the birth rate to the extent necessary to stabilise the population at a level consistent with the requirement of the National economy."The Family Welfare Programme in India is recognised as a priority area, and is being implemented as a 100% Centrally sponsored programme. As per Constitution of India, Family Planning is in the Concurrent list. 

The approach under the programme during the First and Second Five Year Plans was mainly "Clinical" under which facilities for provision of services were created. However, on the basis of data brought out by the 1961 census, clinical approach adopted in the first two plans was replaced by "Extension and Education Approach" which envisaged expansion of services facilities along with spread of message of small family norms.

In the 4^th   (1969-74), high priority was accorded to the programme and it was proposed to reduce birth rate from 35 per thousand to 32 per thousand by the end of plan. 16.5 million couples, constituting about 16.5% of the couples in the reproductive age group, were protected against conception by the end of 4th Plan.

The objective of the Five Year Plan (1974-79) was to bring down the birth rate to 30 per thousand by the end of 1978-79. The programme was included as a priority sector programme during the Five Year Plan with increasing integration of family planning services with those of Health, Maternal and Child Health (MCH) and nutrition, so that the programme became more readily acceptable. The years 1975-76 and 1976-77 recorded a phenomenal increase in performance of sterilisation. However, in view of rigidity in enforcement of targets by field functionaries and an element of coercion in the implementation of the programme in 1976-77 in some areas, the programme received a set-back during 1977-78. As a result, the Government made it clear that there was no place for force or coercion or compulsion or for pressure of any sort under the programme and the programme had to be implemented as an integral part of "Family Welfare" relying solely on mass education and motivation. The name of the programme also was changed to Family Welfare from Family Planning. The change was not merely in nomenclature but essentially in the content of its objectives. 

In the Sixth Five Year Plan (1980-85), certain long-term demographic goals of reaching net reproduction rate of unity were envisaged. The implications of this were to achieve the following by the year 2000 AD.

•  Reduction of average size of family from 4.4 children in 1975 to 2.3 children.
• Reduction of birth rate to 21 from the level of 33 in 1978 and death rate from 14 to 9 and Infant Mortality Rate(IMR) from 127 to below 60.
•  Increasing the couple protection level from 22% to 60%.The Family Welfare Programme during VII five year plan (1985-90) was continued on a purely voluntary basis with emphasis on promoting spacing methods, securing maximum community participation and promoting maternal and child health care.

 In order to provide facilities/services nearer to the door steps of population, the following steps/initiatives were taken during the 7th Plan period.

•  It was envisaged to have one sub-centre for every 5000 population in plain areas and for 3000 population in hilly and tribal areas. At the end of 7th plan i.e.31.3.1990, 1.30 lakhs sub-centres were established in the country.
• The Post Partum programme was progressively extended to the sub-district level hospitals. At the end of 7th plan, 1012 sub-district level hospitals and 870 Health Posts were established in the country.
• A project for improving Primary Health Care in urban slums in the cities of Bombay and Madras was taken up with assistance from World Bank.
•  Area Development Projects were implemented in selected districts of 15 major States with assistance from various donor Agencies.

The achievements of the Family Welfare Programme at the end of the VII plan were:

•  Reduction in crude birth rate from 41.7 %   to 30.2  % .
•  Reduction in total fertility rate from 5.97 %  to 3.8 %.
•  Reduction in infant mortality rate from 146 to 80.
•  Increase in Couple Protection Rate from 10.4%  to 43.3% .
•  Setting up of a large network of service delivery infrastructure, which was virtually non-existent at the inception of the programme.
•  Over 118 million births were averted by the end of march, 1990.To impart new dynamism to the Family Welfare Programme, several new initiatives were introduced and ongoing schemes were revamped in the Eighth Plan (1992-97). The broad features of these initiatives are as under:

World Bank assisted Area Projects which seek to upgrade infrastructure and development of trained manpower have been continued during the 8th Five Year Plan. Two new Area Projects namely India Population Project (IPP)-VIII and IX have been initiated during the 8th Plan. The IPP-VIII project aims at improving health & family welfare services in the urban slums in the cities of Delhi, Calcutta, Hyderabad and Bangalore. IPP-IX will operate in the States of Rajasthan, Assam and Karnataka.

Reduction in the population growth rate has been recognised as one of the priority objectives during the Ninth Plan period.

The objectives during the Ninth Plan are:

•  To meet all the felt-needs for contraception.
• To reduce the infant and maternal morbidity and mortality so that there is a reduction in the desired level of fertility.

The strategies during the Ninth Plan will be:

• To assess the needs for reproductive and child health at PHC level and undertake area-specific micro planning.
•  To provide need-based, demand-driven, high quality, integrated reproductive and child health care.