Odisha aims at achieving 19 lakh new contraceptive users by 2020

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has set a target to achieve 19 lakh new contraceptive users by 2020 as part of FP2020 Vision in order to prevent both unwanted pregnancies and limit the family.

It was informed by Health and Family Welfare Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak here on Saturday.

  

“We are taking various steps to stabilise population of the State. As a matter of pride, our State has been awarded for good show in a national summit. We have prepared a vision document for 2020 to sterilize 19 lakh people,” Nayak said.

The department data said the State has yielded good results in controlling population including sharp reduction in total fertility rate (TFR), a most important indicator in population control programme. The TFR rate has decreased from a shocking high of 4.7 to 2.1 against the national average of 2.3.

Health and Family Welfare department Principal Secretary Arti Ahuja said the State Government has undertaken several measures in order to strengthen the family planning programme to achieve the FP2020 target.

“We are planning to involve more people in population stabilisation programme and working for reduction of Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in the State,” said Ahuja.

The department has undertaken initiatives in increasing the post-partum contraceptive services through both promotion of family planning counselling and services by facility based service providers, which has resulted in significant increase in post-partum contraceptive acceptance.

The department data shows that more than 36,347 PPIUCD insertions have been done within 48 hours post-delivery at the health facility by trained service providers in 2014-15 against merely 4,818 in the year 2013-14. The department claimed this as an indication of the success of the measures being undertaken by it for family planning.

To justify its claim of good show in population control in the State, the department data shows Odisha’s decadal growth rate has decreased from 16.25 per cent (Census-2001) to 13.97 per cent (Census-2011) which is lower than the national average (17.64 per cent). It also claimed that birth rate has been decreased to 20.1 in 2011 from 23.5 in 2001.