In 1994, ICPD stressed gender equity as a precondition for health and development while affirming the need to address women's subordination in reproductive health programs. However, those responsible for implementing these broad goals still struggle with how to operationalise gender-aware approac

The impact of the family planning (FP) programme over the years is showing varying impacts on fertility across regions and population groups in India.

Breast-feeding is the most important form of infant nutrition. Unfortunately there has been a steady decline in breast-feeding practices in the post industrialized era. Breast milk substitutes, a major threat to breast-feeding, are indeed a big business.

Contraception as a behavioral phenomenon has been the focus of many population researches, during the last half a century. In fact, explaining contraceptive behavior is a complex theoretical effort. Learning, motivation,

Fertility in Pakistan has shown a stubborn resistance to change. Because of sharp declines in mortality following World War II, the population of Pakistan was growing at the rate of 2.7 percent per annum around 1960.

The recent decline in fertility in Bangladesh froin a total fertility rate of 6.3 children per women in 1975 to 3.5 in 1995 (MHPC, 1978:73; BBS, 1996) has created interest among researchers, policy makers and academicians.

Despite its many advantages, the employment of women in economic activity in India has been associated with increased mortality for infants and young children. Simultaneously, narrower gender differentials in child mortality among employed women have been noted.

Undernourished women tend to deliver low birth weight babies (Karmer, 1987) and to have pregnancy complications (Baird, 1947). Perinatal mortality and prematurity rates were found to be high among short statured women (Barros, 1987).

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.

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].