RCH in the Context of Women's Health

Abstract

India was the first developing country to start a population control programme way back in 1951. This pioneering effort of adopting intervention strategies to regulate the population growth as a national policy had a very significant bearing on the national development scene in the ensuing years. With the aim to achieve control over the population explosion, the Government from time to time reviewed its policies, adapted its strategies and strengthened its activities in tune with the changing demands consistent with the needs of national development. But in spite of the family planning programme in existence for nearly 50 years, the goal of population stabilization still remains elusive. There can be several reasons for this shortfall. One important reason was that the family planning programme was started purely a demographic initiative, based on numerical methods and target oriented.