Table of Contents
According to its definition, family planning determines how many children you will have and how far apart by using contraceptive methods such as birth control. Although this is ideally supposed to be a personal choice, countries with burgeoning populations such as China and India institute family planning policies to control population growth.
Long and Short Essay on Family Planning in India in English
Below are some essays on family planning in India and its role, causes and effects. The family planning essays are of different lengths (word limit) and will help you in your exams/assignments. Choose whichever family planning essay you want depending upon your requirement.
Short Essay on Family Planning in India – Essay 1 (200 Words)
Introduction
India has the world’s second largest population at 1.3 billion people. It is projected that at the current growth rate, our population will exceed China’s by the year 2028. As per the UN, which made this projection, the growth rate of the population in India is significantly higher than that of China. Indian lawmakers recognized the urgency of the situation very early on and, therefore, the government instituted family planning policies.
History of Family Planning
India has the distinction of being the first country in the developing world to start a family planning program that was state-sponsored. This program was started in 1952 and was called the National Family Planning Program. At first, the program was focused on contraceptive measures such as birth control. However, as time passed, the program encompassed other aspects of family health such as nutrition, family welfare and mother and child health. Eventually, the name of the department was also changed from Family Planning Department to Family Welfare Program to showcase this advancement in policy.
Current Status of Family Planning
Over the decades, both state and central governments have done a lot to implement the program at different levels of society. This includes methods such as spreading awareness through public service announcements and door-to-door campaigns, encouraging the two-child norm through monetary incentives, emphasis on education for boys and girls and focusing a lot of efforts in the rural areas.
Conclusion
These Family Planning measures have certainly been successful, as the decrease in the population growth rate demonstrates. However, factors such as poverty, preference of sons to daughter and traditional thinking are major roadblocks to complete success.
Essay on The Family Planning: Its Need – Essay 2 (250 Words)
Introduction
As of June 2018, the total population of the world stands at 7.6 billion. Out of this, 3.2 billion people were added by developing countries over the last 50 years. If the current projections continue, 3.1 billion more will be added by these countries. The fact is that the world’s population is growing substantially and this growth is showing few signs of slowing down.
Need for Family Planning
Family planning is needed both at an individual level and at a global level. For a family, being able to plan when and how many children they will have can allow them to have fewer children to whom they can devote more energy, time and resources. It also affects the health of the children; if the children are spaced too close or if there are too many children the mortality rates are higher.
For a country, a burgeoning population puts a lot of pressure on its natural and built resources. Housing an ever increasing population, educating the people, having healthcare in place and providing employment – all of these factors become hugely challenging when the population grows exponentially. Family planning is definitely needed for such countries so that they can control the growth of their populations and have enough resources for everyone. The pressure on the environment also eases when population growth slows down as does the demand for finite natural resources.
Conclusion
Family planning is needed at both an individual and worldwide level. There aren’t enough resources to go around and what resources there are aren’t distributed equally. Therefore, it becomes absolutely essential that everyone be educated about family planning and the benefits it brings.
Essay on Importance of Family Planning – Essay 3 (400 Words)
Introduction
Right up until the 20th century, people, especially women, could only rely on luck or prayers when it came to family planning. People who wanted children couldn’t always have them. People who didn’t want too many children or wanted to have children further apart couldn’t do anything to accomplish this. The only reliable method for birth control was abstinence, a method that didn’t appeal to everyone. Now, however, many different family planning methods are available and this availability has made significant changes to people’s lives.
Importance of Family Planning
Family planning affects many different aspects of someone’s life, the two major ones being finances and health. First of all, thanks to family planning methods, couples can decide when they are in a financial position to have children. This becomes important when one considers the cost of healthcare during a pregnancy and then the costs of bringing up the children including food, shelter, clothing and education.
Birth control allows couples to decide when they are ready to bear these costs. Second, planning children properly spaced apart helps women’s health. As per the USAID or the United States Agency for International Development, if a mother has children spaced less than two years apart or more than five years apart, both the mother’s and the child’s health can be impacted.
Family planning isn’t important only for individual families, it is also important for countries and for the world. One of the biggest problems we face today is overpopulation. We have a global population that far exceeds the resources that are available to us. Family planning helps to bring down the growth rate of the population so that the burden on our resources, if not exactly eased, is at least not increased. China’s one-child policy and India’s two-child policy are examples of countries that are overpopulated using family planning methods to control their populations.
Conclusion
While most people often use birth control and family planning synonymously, the fact is that family planning is far more than merely preventing conception. It is the best way for couples to chart their future, for women to control their own bodies and for countries to control population growth. Many may disagree on religious or moral grounds but the fact remains that family planning is an absolute necessity in the 21st century.
Essay on Impact of Family Planning Methods – Essay 4 (450 Words)
Introduction
Since the last century, family planning methods have really come into their own. Where once abstinence was the only way to ensure that no pregnancy would occur, the family planning methods these days allow men and women to have healthy sex lives and have children only when they are ready for that commitment.
Impact of Family Planning Methods
However, the overall impact is much more than was initially believed.
Bodily Autonomy
Although sexual intercourse takes place between two consenting partners, it is the woman who gets pregnant if no birth control is used. The impact of this on a woman’s life is incalculable. For a long time, women had no way of ensuring the prevention of pregnancy. However, now that birth control methods are easily and, in many cases, freely available, women have greater autonomy over their bodies. They can decide whether they want children, when they want them and how far apart they want them. They can ensure that they have achieved their personal, professional and financial goals without worrying about unplanned pregnancies.
Health Benefits
Various studies have shown that women who take oral contraceptive pills for five or more years have a lower chance of suffering from ovarian cancer. These pills also reduce the chance of getting ovarian cysts. Birth control pills are also often prescribed to regulate irregular menstrual cycles, reduce the intensity of menstrual cramps and deal with other symptoms.
One of the biggest impacts that family planning methods have had is on maternal mortality rates, especially in developing nations. Birth control has reduced the number of women who die due to unsafe methods of abortions.
Population Control
Although family planning methods are useful for couples to plan out when they want to start a family, they have also had a very discernible effect on a major area of concern globally – population growth. Before birth control methods came along, a woman could have anywhere between 12 to 15 pregnancies over the course of her life – a factor that contributed hugely to overpopulation. With birth control, women can decide when they want children and how many they want, effectively slowing down population growth.
Conclusion
Birth control methods have had a huge impact on various arenas. The availability of birth control has empowered women, allowed families to decide the right time to start or continue their families and helped governments control their populations. There have been outspoken objections to the use of contraceptives, mainly based on religion or morality, but, on the whole, it is quite obvious that family planning methods are shaping and will continue to shape our future whether it is on an individual level or on a global level.
Essay on Family Planning Programme in India – Essay 5 (500 Words)
Introduction
India has the distinction of being the first country in the developing world to initiate a state supported family planning program. The necessity of such a program is obvious when one looks at the statistics with regards to the Indian population.
Currently, India has the second largest population in the world at 1.3 billion. The national fertility rate is quite high; every 20 days, around one million people are added to its population. The United Nations has projected that by the year 2028, India will have surpassed China in the population stakes. Fortunately, the Indian government recognized the scope of this problem and initiated family planning measures some time ago.
History of Family Planning in India
The first prominent person to recognize the need for population control was Raghunath Dhondo Karve. He published a magazine called Samaj Swasthya between 1927 and 1953, in which he argued that society would best be served by controlling the population through the use of contraceptive measures. Karve urged the Indian government to take steps to institute population control programmes, an endeavour that was opposed by Mahatma Gandhi on the grounds that people should exercise self-control rather than turn to birth control.
By 1951, it had become obvious to the Indian government that family planning was becoming increasingly urgent in the face of the burgeoning population. That is when the government decided create a family planning program that would be state-sponsored. Five year plans were put into place; these plans were focused on economic growth and restructuring. However, in 1971, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi put into place a policy of forced sterilization.
Ideally, men who had two or more children were supposed to be sterilized, but the program ended up sterilizing many men who were unmarried or those who politically opposed the regime. By the time a new government came into power, the damage was done; many people viewed family planning with aversion. Therefore, the government decided to shift its focus to birth control measures for women.
Family Planning in Recent Years
The measures put into place have not been entirely unsuccessful. In fact, between 1965 and 2009, the use of contraceptives increased to 48 percent from 13 percent among women. The fertility rate has also gone down 2.4 from 5.7 during the years between 1966 and 2012. States have also adopted two-child policies in which they can prohibit people with more than two children from applying for government jobs.
Conclusion
However, India still has a long way to go. While most women are aware of birth control measures, they cite difficulty in accessing these measures. The traditional mindset of most Indians when it comes to children doesn’t help either. Also, while the fertility rate has gone down, it isn’t enough to control the population explosion. India needs to do much more to ensure that population growth is brought under control.
Essay on Family Planning Methods – Essay 6 (900 Words)
Introduction
In its most basic form, family planning means planning out how many children you will have, when you’ll have them and how far apart they will be spaced. Families can take various factors into account when deciding upon family planning such as their finances, their health and their preferences.
Many different methods are available to them for this purpose. While the only fool-proof method is abstinence, there are many other methods of birth control, which, while not 100 percent effective, are highly successful if used regularly and properly.
Types of Birth Control Methods
There are quite a few methods of birth control available to men and women. They can select the method they want to use based on habits, health issues and personal preferences.
Birth control methods are divided into three broad categories.
- Barrier Methods – Barrier methods can be used by both men and women. As the name suggests, these methods act as barriers to sperm, ensuring that sperm doesn’t enter the cervix or if it does, it is disabled. These methods include the following:
- Condoms – A thin sheath made out of polyurethane or latex is known as a condom. Condoms are available for both males and females. The condom for males is supposed to go over the erect penis, while the one for females is positioned inside the vagina before sexual intercourse. The condom must be worn every time sexual intercourse occurs. Condoms are easily available at most chemists and don’t require a prescription beforehand.
- Cervical Cap and Diaphragm – Both methods are meant to be used by women. The diaphragm is a rubber cup that is flexible. It is filled with cream or jelly that is spermicidal. It needs to be inserted into the vagina before intercourse, till it rests over the cervix. It prevents sperm from penetrating the cervix and the spermicidal jelly or cream disables or kills the sperm. However, since all women are different, a health worker or gynecologist must prescribe the diaphragm depending upon the size and type a particular woman needs. The cervical cap is a similar device but smaller. Both should be removed only six to eight hours after intercourse. These two methods aren’t foolproof – there is a five to twenty percent chance that a woman who uses either of these still gets pregnant. Additional risks include allergic reactions, urinary tract infections and occasionally toxic shock syndrome if left in too long.
- Vaginal Sponge – These are soft sponges containing a spermicidal chemical and should be moistened and inserted into a woman’s vagina before intercourse. A prescription isn’t required to purchase vaginal sponges, which are available at a local pharmacy or chemist.
- Hormonal Methods – There are birth control methods that use hormones as a means of preventing pregnancy. They contain either only progestin or progestin and oestrogen. Since they affect hormonal balance inside the body, they need to be prescribed by a medical practitioner. Oestrogen and progestin together prevent eggs from being released by the ovary and progestin alone makes the mucus around the cervix sticky and thick so that sperms can’t make their way to the egg. The different hormonal methods are:
- Birth Control Pills – One of the most common methods of birth control, these pills can contain only progestin or a combination of oestrogen and progestin.
- Implants – As the name suggests, these are small rods which are inserted under the skin and release continuous doses of hormones to stop ovulation.
- Injections – These are birth control shots that normally contain progestin and are injected into the buttocks or the upper arm once every three months.
- Skin Patch – This is a patch that contains hormones and can be placed on certain parts of the body such as the shoulder. Once placed it keeps up a continuous stream of hormones in the body.
- Morning After Contraception – This is also known as the morning after pill and should be taken within 72 hours of intercourse. No prescription is required and it is easily available at a chemist.
- IUD or Intrauterine Device – A very reliable and long-term method of contraception, the IUD is a copper or plastic device that is inserted into the vagina by a healthcare professional. It can be left in place anywhere between five to ten years and there is only one percent chance that a woman on IUD will get pregnant. Some IUDs have small amounts of the hormone progestin which is released into the body.
- Permanent Methods – These methods are best used by women and men who have decided not to have children at all or not to have any more children. Vasectomies and tubal ligations come under this category. Occasionally, people who have undergone one of these procedures may want them reversed and it can be done. However, the chances of successfully conceiving afterwards are not very high.
Conclusion
Birth control allows men and women to have autonomy over their bodies and decide when and how they want to start or continue families. For more information, people should visit their local health workers or medical practitioners. It is very necessary that men and women research the different options available and then make a decision as some of these methods can cause health issues while others are fairly permanent and cannot be reversed if they change their minds.
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