Beyond Family Planning Measures

The term "Beyond  family planning" was popularized by Bernand Berelson and Philip M.Hauser. According to these authors, certain non-family planning measures can also regulate the growth of population. In this context they focused on the importance of raising the age at marriage of boys and girls, medical termination of pregnancy (MTP); voluntary and involuntary separation are examples of beyond family planning measures.  Now you may be wondering as to how they can regulate the population growth. 

Raising Age at Marriage 

Females in India traditionally marry soon after puberty. Such women have a prolonged  fertile reproductive period of 30-35 years for conception. This is, because the mean age at puberty in India ranges from 12 to 14 years. The mean age at marriage of females in India in 1981 was 18.3 years resulting in a  high, fertility of around 5 children per woman. When female age at marriage is legally raised to 20 years or more, the probability of averting the future births may go up to 20-25 percent. When it is further raised to 23 years, as in China, it may have still greater scope to prevent more births, However, our present, minimum legal age of marriage of 18 years for girls is not adequate because of primary sterility existing for 1-2 years after puberty. In addition, if age at marriage is raised to 20 years or more, several advantages will be there. For example girls will have opportunity to get education, develop physical and mental maturity and a sense of planning in life besides minimizing the risk of infant and maternal mortality. When age at marriage for girls is raised, maternal and child health can be assured and their longevity can become a reality. Therefore, education/counselling for raising age at marriage of girls forms a powerful beyond family planning measure to regulate population growth. 

Medical Termination of Pregnancy 

Abortion is theoretically defined as termination of pregnancy before the foetus becomes viable (capable of living independently). This has been fixed administratively at 28 weeks, when the foetus weighs approximately 1000 g. Abortion is sought by women for a variety of reasons including birth control. As referred to earlier, MTP was legalized in India by 1972. Through voluntary . abortion, many countries successfully regulated rapid growth of population avoiding unwanted births. In fact, 75 per cent of the success of Japan's family planning programme has been attributed to induced abortion. In Latin America, particularly in Chile 30 per cent of the success in population control has been attributed to induced abortion. In addition, most of the Scandinavian countries in Europe regulated their population growth largely through induced abortion. Even in India, the Kongu Vellalas of Tamil Nadu have the lowest birth rate in South India which they attained largely through induced abortion. However, in India it remains as a taboo and those who resort to abortion use mostly indigenous and unscientific methods which is affecting the health and longevity of women. Never the less,  induced abortion was very negligible in India till 1972 (50,000) but increased to over 600,000 by 1990. No doubt it varies between rural and urban areas, in different communities and states. But these abortions do not contribute much in bringing down birth rate in India because most of the women resorting to induced abortion already have high parity.