Accessing modern contraceptive technologies in India.

ABSTRACT

The 'unmet' need for reproductive health care in India requires a wide demand net. Besides 'supply' of oral contraceptives, condoms and IUDs, the 'non-supply' approach for increasing contraceptive prevalence is recommended through education about the variety of safe contraceptives and awareness in the use of traditional methods. Expansion of education is partly responsible for the recent decline in fertility in India, however, gender inequality still prevails with poor sex ratio in urban regions, and deficit of around 35 million girls and women from higher mortality compared to males till the age of 30. The community can become a key force in knowledge sharing for greater contraceptive prevalence and also to support its service sector. Practice of.women's reproductive health involves complex socio-cultural-biological interaction in accessing modern contraceptive technologies. A number of interactive factors have been suggested to operate at different hierarchical levels to provide homeodynamic stability to the central event of reproductive health care under a central controller action, the government. While guidelines of the World Health Organization for quality care in family planning should be implemented in rural and urban sectors, efforts should also be made to translate recent advances in contraceptive technology from laboratory to service sector for improving women's reproductive health.