Barriers in family planning
Pendharkar, L.P.
Parivar Ayojan 2: 70-73
1968
ISSN/ISBN: 0254-4563 PMID: 12338670 Document Number: 519408
Because of cultural factors, many people in India are opposed to family planning. They are not able to understand that the real problem facing India is overpopulation. In the past, people were exhorted to have many children, and to look upon numerous offspring as a blessing, and this concept has not changed, although the times and environment have. The majority of marriages in rural areas take place when the girl is hardly 16 or 17, which contributes to high fertility. Also illiteracy breeds ignorance about improved methods of cultivation and about methods of planned parenthood. Starved, poor couples have larger numbers of children than do well-to-do families, and thus poverty becomes a vicious circle. Doctors should come forward and offer their help to family planning programs, and social workers should be less concerned with official routines than results. Educating illiterate, adamant people is no easy task, and requires the zeal of a missionary.