Sex ratio is perhaps one of the most important sociodemographic indices which reflect the socio-economic and cultural ethos of a country, more so with reference to the status of its women.

Information on the determinants of contraceptive failure and the effects or outcome of such failure has important implications for the study of fertility as well as for women's health.

The high female infant mortality rates (Miller, 1985), the practice of female infanticide (Krishnaswamy, 1988), the neglect of female children with regard to access to health services, nutrition (Sen and Sengupta 1983) and education (Mankekar, 1985), and the sexual abuse of girls (Bhalerao, 1985)

The single most important problem that India is facing now is the uncontrolled growth of population. In spite of availability of a wide range of contraceptives and mass media campaigns and IEC programs, the population control remains a distant dream to achieve.

The MCH services are offered at Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and their subcenters in the rural areas, and by general hospitals, women's and children's hospital and MCH centers run by State Health Departments and also through Municipal and Voluntary Organizations in the urban areas.

In countries where emergency contraception is offered, its availability and use vary widely, according to such factors as regulations and policies regarding the method, providers' and women's understanding of and attitudes toward it, and cost.

On the World Population Day this year, there were two new features which are welcome: the first is the concern for environment in the context of population growth; and the second is the candid admission by the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare that we must get rid of the tyranny of fami

We live in an era of paradoxes and contradictions - the reality was never so multifaceted, the issues never so complex. Everything around us seems to be melting and unfortunately the new forms acquired by the congealing of the molten mass leaves us little to rejoice at.

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.