BackContraceptives averted 5.5 crore unintended pregnancies, 18 lakh unsafe abortions and 30,000 maternal deaths in 2019
While chairing a virtual meeting on the occasion of World Population Day Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare said that it is even more critical now to recognise the importance of providing reproductive health services due to the challenges posed by covid-19 pandemic
PremiumUse of contraceptives helped avert 5.5 crore unintended pregnancies, 1.1 crore total births, 18 lakh unsafe abortions and 30,000 maternal deaths in 2019 alone, the union health ministry said on Saturday.
While chairing a virtual meeting on the occasion of World Population Day Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare said that it is even more critical now to recognise the importance of providing reproductive health services due to the challenges posed by covid-19 pandemic.
In the last decade India’s Crude Birth Rate (CBR) has reduced from 21.8 ( Sample Registration System (SRS) 2011) to 20 (SRS 2018) while the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has declined from 2.4 (SRS 2011) to 2.2 (SRS 2018).
And the teenage fertility has halved from 16 (NFHS-3) to 7.9 (NFHS -4).
“These efforts have taken India closer to reaching the replacement fertility level of 2.1 and 25 out of 36 States/UTs have already achieved replacement level fertility," said Harsh Vardhan.
India is a part of the global family planning 2020 (FP) movement. With domestic funding, the major initiatives under Family Planning include Mission Parivar Vikas, Injectable Contraceptive MPA, Family Planning – Logistics Management Information System (LMIS), Family Planning Communications Campaign. The National Family Planning Program has introduced the Injectable Contraceptive in the public health system under the “Antara" program.
“This contraceptive is highly effective and will meet the changing needs of couples and help women space their pregnancies. All this investment has paid us rich dividends in terms of averting nearly 5.5 crore unintended pregnancies, 1.1 crore total births, 18 lakh unsafe abortions and 30,000 maternal deaths as a result of contraceptive use in 2019 alone, as per Track 20 Estimates," said Harsh Vardhan.
Currently, India’s 50% of the country's population falls in the reproductive age group of 15-49 years, as per the government data.
The Health Minister also released the AB-HWC Mobile application developed by Ministry of Health and family Welfare. The App is designed to streamline the process of data reporting at Ayushman Bharat- Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs). It is an extension of AB-HWC Portal which is already used by state, district and AB-HWC facility in-charge to report data pertaining to service utilization at AB-HWCs to enable real time performance monitoring and act as a tool for planning. It shall provide real time information on the people who have been screened, dispensation of healthcare services and drugs, footfalls, and referrals made to primary health centres (PHCs).
“The covid-19 crisis has placed unprecedented demands on our social services and health care system. Women are increasingly at greater risk of sexual and domestic violence, disruptions to their healthcare services, stock outs of supplies of contraceptives and menstrual hygiene products and mental stress and anxiety,"’ said Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India (PFI).
“It is critical that we reassess our emergency response policies through a gender lens to improve planning and programming," she said.
The PFI has also released a policy paper —The Impact of covid- 19 on Women assessing the differential impact of covid-19 and recommending timely measures to ensure women and girls remain central to covid-19 response planning and recovery efforts.
The policy paper has recommended increased investments in family planning as the most cost-effective public health measures. It also recommended the government to invest in the 3.3 million female frontline health workers who are the face of the Indian public health system and in many parts of the country the only health-care support.
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