Sunday, August 23, 2009

Satara District, Maharashtra asks couples to put parenthood on hold

Offering couples cash incentives if they put off having their first child by two years has delayed 2,500 births, claim officials in Satara district,Maharashtra.

On August 15, India’s Independence Day, several couples in Satara district in the western state of Maharashtra redeemed their pledge of not having a child for two years after marriage. Officials say this family planning initiative of the Satara district administration has delayed 2,500 births in the two years since it has been in existence.

In 2007, officials in Satara introduced the voluntary scheme with a corpus of Rs 6 crore from the National Rural Health Mission to curb the rising birth rate in the area. Couples who agreed to defer their first child by two years would be given a cash incentive of Rs 5,000. Around 485 couples will get a cheque of Rs 5,000, while another 2,366 couples will be awarded during the year as soon as they complete their two-year vow.

Satara district has a population of around 28 lakh, with a girl:boy ratio of 995:1,000. District medical officer Dr V Phalake says that roughly 25,000 marriages take place every year; over 80% result in a baby in the first year. This is largely because of the widespread belief that a child born during the first year of marriage will be healthy.

According to Dr Phalake, roughly 10% (2,366 couples) of couples have participated in the programme and, as a result, 2,500 births have been delayed. “The birth rate of the district is steadily dropping. From the previous 17 births per 1,000, it will become 15 by 2010,” he says.

Vivek Baid, president of the Mission for Population Control, approves of the scheme even though his NGO advocates permanent family planning measures like vasectomy. “It will work like a temporary family planning device like IUD, birth control pills and condoms. The financial benefit added to this package will motivate couples to delay childbirth,” he says. Indeed, the idea is to delay births, not deprive parents of the joys of parenthood.

The scheme has attracted couples from different sections of society and with different motives. Some couples find the scheme attractive because it allows both partners to continue working. Others find the money useful. Says daily wage earner Vinod Waghmare: “If it wasn’t for the scheme we would have had children in the first year of marriage. But now I want to open a fixed deposit from this money for the future of my child.”

For those who delay having a child by another one year, the financial package goes up to Rs 7,500.

Many couples say, however, that they have to keep their participation in the scheme a secret from their families who would certainly disapprove. When Jawade Rao told his mother, she stopped talking to him and his wife. He says he cannot afford to let such a state of affairs continue.

The Satara model has attracted interest from Assam and Jharkhand. The fight to contain population cannot be won by coercive methods, say experts. But the effectiveness of incentives and disincentives in family planning is also a matter of debate.

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