Social Change and Family Planning: A Study of Backward Classes

Abstract

The impact of the family planning (FP) programme over the years is showing varying impacts on fertility across regions and population groups in India. While it has been strongly argued on the one hand, the success of FP is becoming increasingly a regional phenomenon (Srinivasan 1995; Rayappa and Lingaraju 1995), on the other, it is often, emphasized that the process of fertility decline in India is being negated by the low effect of FP among weaker sections, most of whom live under conditions of poverty. Evidently, the success stories of FP in
Kerala and Tamil Nadu and in many other smaller regions like Mandya district in Karnataka, highlight that the success of FP is largely due to its diffusion, which has been greatly facilitated by regional social factors (Bhat and Rajan 1990; Kishor 1994; Bhat and Raju 1994).