India has the distinction of being the first country in the developing world to initiate a family planning programme-it later came to be called the Family Welfare Programme (FWP)-with a view to bring down the country's fertility level and contain population growth.

The concept of fecundability - the monthly probability of conception in women - is one of the principal determinants of fertility and one of the most important parameters for studying fertility patterns in different societies.

Bangladesh, with its characteristic high growth rate and population density,
widespread poverty, and very low literacy and standard of living, has faced no greater
problem than its ever-increasing population. Its size, composition and rate of growth of

Sterilization is one of the most popular and widely used methods of contraception in the world today. The family welfare program of the Government of India has relied heavily on sterilization as a birth control method.

Population policy is, and has always been, contentious. For the last two years, the debate on population related issues-both nationally and internationally-has been difficult and sometimes acrimonious.

While it has become common to infer the social status of women from their demographic characteristics, it is not easy to read demographic progress in terms of declines in mortality, and fertility to make unambiguous judgments about trends in women's social standing.

India can take legitimate pride that it was one of the earliest nations to introduce a population policy, yet fertility control remains a most contentious problem of electoral politics of India in the 1990s.

With 58 percent of married couples in Asia and Oceania using a contraceptive method in 1990 (United Nations, 1994), contraception - a novelty two decades ago - has become the norm in much of the region.

India can take legitimate pride that it was one of the earliest nations to introduce a population policy, yet fertility control remains a most contentious problem of electoral politics of India in the 1990s.