Reflections on the future of family planning
Misra, B.D.; Simmons, R.; Ashraf, A.; Simmons, G.B.
Socio economic development and population control: 167-188
1988
Document Number: 368385
A series of organizational problems facing the family planning programme in Uttar Pradesh are examined. Health workers do not have personal commitment to their respective job responsibilities. Field workers are neither supervised nor provided with proper logistic support. Hardly any attention is paid to how overall organizational structures and process relate to client transactions. Contrary to the state's goal of bringing about new orientations towards family size and voluntary adoption of birth control methods through an educational approach, the actual organizational processes emphasize the number of cases to be recruited, ignoring almost entirely the quality of the recruitment processes. The basic dilemma facing the programme is that the bureaucracy responsible for family planning does not have the organizational capacity to fully implement the type of organizing strategy which logically follows from the extension approach as presently conceived. A three pronged action to strengthen the programme is proposed.