Towards an integrated population and development strategy
Gwatkin, D.R.
Socio economic development and population control: 56-77
1988
Document Number: 368372
The paper strongly underlines the complementary role played by development and family planning programmes in controlling fertility. The cost of the family planning programme in India is generally so low that it does not compete to any significant degree with any other welfare programme which could have bearing on fertility decline. Further, the cost per sterilization equivalent including the cost of substantative infrastructure is around Rs340 in India, whereas the saving per birth averted due to sterilization ranges from Rs1000 to Rs8000. There is thus no reason to question the cost effectiveness of the programme. An analysis of the interaction between family planning and other programmes indicates that neither social settings nor the availability of family planning services alone could explain the differential performance of family planning in different regions. The analysis shows that 10%-15% of the differential could be explained by social settings while another 15%-55% could be attributed to differences in the family planning programme efforts. The joint effect of social settings and availability of the family planning service is much higher than either of the two taken separately. Thus, the controversy over the relative importance of development and family planning is pointless. The best strategy is to adopt an integrated population and development approach which, on the one hand, should make cheap contraceptives easily available to all and, on the other hand, aims to achieve equity-oriented, overall development.