For the last three decades, India's Family Welfare Programme has pursued the goal of reducing fertility as rapidly as possible. Until recently the means used to achieve this goal were method-specific contraceptive targets and cash incentives for acceptors.

There is a need to document women's perceptions regarding the quality of their health care, including abortion services, since most studies to date have approached this issue from the viewpoint of service providers, policymakers, or the state (Jesani and Iyer 1995).

The nature of domestic violence, its causes, and its prevalence must be fully understood in order to plan effective prevention and intervention strategies. Research should examine not only the determinants and consequences of violence but also relevant economic, social, and cultural factors.

STRONG preference for sons over daughters exists in the Indian subcontinent, east Asia, north Africa and west Asia unlike in the western countries [Muthurayappa et al 1997, Lancet 1990, Okun 1996].

THE United Nations Commission on the Status of Women defines violence against women to include "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women..." [Economic and Social Council 1992].

This report examines the linkages between wife-beating and one health-related consequence for women, their experience of fetal and infant mortality.

Infanticide has been practiced in all continents, but little dependable primary data exist on this subject. Presented here are the findings on female infanticide for a rural, south Indian population.

The expectant and lactating mothers are considered as nutritionally vulnerable group especially in the developing countries of the world. Due to nursing process mothers are subjected to nutritional stresses.

This study analyzes longitudinal data from Matlab, Bangladesh, to examine the impact of child mortality on subsequent contraceptive acceptance and continuation.

The Indian family welfare program seeks to promote the two-child norm by offering couples the opportunity to choose voluntarily the family planning method best suited to their needs.