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Focus 1998 July - September English |
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'Focos
POPULATION ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPMENT
Volume XII No.3
July-September 1998
State of India's Population and Wall Chart Released,
Seminar on Adolescents Organised
PH organised a number of activities to mark the World Population Day on July 11. Besides releasing two important publications: State of India's
Population and a Wall Chart: India - Human Development and Related Indices 1998, a seminar on 'Role of Voluntary Agencies in Mobilising Adolescents
in Reproductive and Child Health Programmes' was organised. Both the functions were held on July 11, 1998 at India International Centre.
P FI released State of India's
Population and a Wall Chart :
India-Human Development and Related
Indices 1998 at a function held on July
11, 1998 at India International Centre.
Dr Bharat Ram, Chairman, PFI released
the two publications.
State of India's Population presents
three indices of health and development
viz. Human Development Index (HDI),
Gender related Health Index (GHI) and
Reproductive Health Index (RHl), based
on the most recent data available.
The Human Development Index,
similar to the one developed by the
United Nations is a composite index
combining the values of three
component indices on expectation of
life at birth, educational attainment and
state domestic product. The Gender
related Health Index is an average of
three component indices which measure
the male-female gap in education, infant
mortality and expectation of life at birth.
The Reproductive Health Index takes
into account the seven factors of total
fertility rate, infant mortality rate, life
expectancy at birth, educational level,
type of medical attention at birth, birth
order and birth interval. This will
Dr K Srinivasan, Dr Bharat Ram and Mr Peter MacAllister of CARE INDIA
at the release of State of India's Population and Wall Chart
facilitate quick and easy assessment of
changes in these indices and their
component values across the States and
over time.
Wall Chart would be useful for
programme administrators, policy
makers and research personnel as a
ready source of information on
population relevant issues.
•
Sarod Recital
Aday earlier on July 10, Amaan
Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali
Bangash, sons and disciples of Ustad
Amjad Ali Khan gave' a Sarod Recital at
Siri Fort Auditorium organised by PFI
in collaboration with CARE INDIA.
In a message on World Population
Day, UNFPA Executive Director, Dr
Nafis Sadik said, "The largest ever
generation of young people are now
entering adult world. One billion of us
are between 15 and 24 years. They will
latg-elydetermine the pace Df population
growth in the next century by their
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- EDITORIAL
Empowerment 01women IS not only a social development
goal to be pursued as an end in itself but is also a powertul
means of attaining rapid reduction in fertility and population
stabilization. Empowerment of women can be attained through
a variety of routes; by providing better education of women; by
providing them employment opportunities outside their homes
for independent source of income and by giving them poshions
of power and authorhy in organizations and polhical systems
through legal provisions. Though it has long been recognized
that these are the cherished goalsof development inthemselves,
it has been brought out only recently by research studies that
they are also powertul instruments for achieving rapid reduction
in fertility and population stabilization.
In India, a number of steps for empowerment of women
have recently been taken by policy makers and planners by
measures such as reservation of one third of the seats in
panchayats; making primary education compulsory for all
children, especially for girls; provision of free mid-day meals
for children in primary schools that helps poor parents to send
their children to school without worrying about their lunch
during school hours, and making the mothers of young school
going daughters to limit their family size since their older
daughters will no longer be available for them to take care of
their sibling sisters or brothers because of going to schools.
The projects funded by Population Foundation of India
through non-governmental organizations in different parts of
the country have established that wherever women have been
empowered through income-generating activities, contraceptive
acceptance among the married women has increased
substantially even within a period of 2 to 3 years. Poor women
who have been given ioans for carrying their own business
have not only been returning their loans promptly but have also
heeded to advice on spacing and Iimhingtheir family size by
adopting modern methods of contraception. They did it without
much consultations with their spouses or their religious
leaders. They asserted their rights to space and Iimh the
number of children they have since unreguiatedfertility not only
adversely affected their health but also their ability to have
access to independent income.
Even from minority communities, where dogmas and
restrictions of religious leaders tend to hoid sway on
contraceptive use by couples, especially among those below
poverty line, providing income generating activities for such
women seems to be a very powertul method of relieving them
from the miseries of unwanted pregnancies by invoking their
ability to take independent decisions. In this connection,
providing easily accessible and economically affordable
contraceptive methods should also be considered another
important dimension of empowerment of women. The
programmes of Differential Rates of Interest (DRi) scheme of
giving loans by banks to people beiow the poverty line at low
rates of interest (micro-credit) can be used by the non-
governmental organizations to help such women, to empower
them and to improve their and their children's health and well·
being by promoting adoptionof modernmethodsof contraception
for spacing and limhing their family. Formation of self·help
groups (SHGs) among women by NGO in their communhies
and utilizing the loan facilities available under (DRI) scheme
to financially support such self-help groups is one of tested
ways of not only economic development for the poorer sections
of the society but also for promoting contraceptive use and
preventing unwanted pregnancies among them.
KJ1~
DR. K. SRINIVASAN
decisions on the size and spacing of
their families. Their decisions will be
affected by their economic well-being,
by their education, by their health status
and by their ability to make choices."
It was to celebrate the theme of this
year's World Population Day that the
young Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan
Ali Bangash were asked to give the
Sarod Recital. They were being
accompanied on the tabla by Pandit
Kumar Bose.
A distinguished gathering that
included member of PFI Governing
Board, Ms Justice Leila Seth, the
Executive Director, Dr K Srinivasan
and Mrs Padma Srinivasan and Ustad
Amjad Ali Khan enjoyed the Recital.
Earlier, a puppet show was
presented by adolescent girls from
CARE INDIA's Health Care Project at
Jabalpur. Based on the theme of
reproductive health for adolescent girls,
the show is staged in each slum of the
project to obtain the sanction of
adolescent girls' parents.
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MPs Concerned about Population
A group of MPs from various political
parties have expressed concern
over the alarming growth of population
and the pressure it is increasingly
exerting on infrastructure, the economy,
the environment and the availability of
primary health care and nutrition.
In a statement issued at the end
of a meeting organised by the Indian
Association of Parliamentarians on
Population and Development on July
11, 1998 to mark the World Population
Day, the MPs stressed the need for
increased community involvement in
population stabilisation activities at all
levels.
The statement said that countries
such as the Philippines, Indonesia and
Bangladesh had been able to achieve
substantial decline in theirfertility figures
and the rate of population mainly
because of a high level of political will
and commitment. It was time the
population problem in India was not left
in the hands of the Government
alone and elected representatives right
from Panchayat to Parliament also
shouldered the responsibility, the
statement added.
Among those who signed the
statement included, Dr Urmilaben Patel,
who is the Vice Chairperson of the
Association, Mr K K Birla, Mr N K P
Salve, Justice Ranganath Misra (retd),
Mrs Chandrika Pandey, Mr T N
Chaturvedi, Mr Lajpat Rai and Mrs
Kamla Sinha.
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Sex Education Needed for Adolescents
The seminar on 'Role of Voluntary
Agencies in Mobilising Adole-
scents in Reproductive and Child Health
Programmes' organised by PFI in
collaboration with CARE INDIA was
also held at India International Centre.
Dr Bharat Ram, Chairman, PFI
inaugurated the seminar. In his ad-
dress, Dr Bharat Ram said NGOs could
play an important role in educating
young individuals and couples because
NGOs were people's own organisa-
tions and had a better appreciation of
local sensitivities
in the areas of re-
production and sex
behaviour. Being
rooted in the com-
munity, said Dr
Bharat Ram, NGOs
were best suited to
organise commu-
nity based family
life education and
run community
supported counsel-
ling for youth.
Welcoming the
participants, Dr K
Srinivasan, Execu-
tive Director, PFI
said it was univer-
sally acknowled-
ged that adolescents formed a distinct
group and had special educational needs
pertaining to human sexuality and
reproductive health. The available
information on the subject did not seem
to be of help and there was therefore
the need for proper education for the
adolescents to cope with the pressure
of growing up and face the newer
challenges posed by society.
Dr Srinivasan said there were 145
million teenagers (13 to 19 years) in
India who would enter into the age of
reproduction during the next 7 to 10
years. Their fertility levels would
largely influence the population
growth in the coming years.
The first session of the seminar on
"Need and Scope of Family Life
Education for Adolescents" was chaired
by Ms Rami Chhabra. In her
presentation, Ms Chhabra said the
present generation of adolescents was
the largest ever with 183 million being
in India. They had a critical role to
play in times which were turbulent and
dominated by the role of media
symbolised by the phrase 'MTV
Generation'.
of human relationship. She asked
whether the use of condoms was the
answer to the rise in the sexually
transmitted diseases which had doubled
since the last decade?
Speaking about the use of radio to
reach adolescents to promote respon-
sible sexual behaviour, Dr Sunil Misra
said sex was an uneasy word even with
people having liberal ideas and was
virtually a taboo within the family. As
a result, adolescents had no one to turn
to for proper guidance. They devel-
oped complexes
and sometimes as
a result of insensi-
tive handling de-
veloped abnormal
behaviour. Dr
Misra believed
radio had the in-
trinsic strength to
discuss intimate
subjects and could
start a process of
revaluation of con-
ventional beliefs
leading to stimu-
lation of desire for
more knowledge.
Ms Chhabra outlined the significant
differences between pattern of society
in Western countries and Asian
countries. She said strategies dealing
with sex education based on the fact
of pre-marital sex were a norm abroad.
Pre-marital or extra-marital sex for the
males was an easy, casual encounter
whereas women generally wanted to
nurture such relationships.
Discussing the scope of family life
education, Ms Chhabra said rather than
just taking the masculine perception of
sex, the feminine view point should be
the basis of sex education leading to
nurturing, caring tender enhancement
Dr D S Muley
who has been
involved with
population educa-
tion disclosed that very little sex
education was included in the text
books. It was generally very elementary
information disposed of in a para
of a few lines.
Dr Muley said science or biology
teachers were most suitable to teach sex
education because reproduction system
and related issues were generally
. included in biology courses.
Dr Muley wanted education sector
to take the responsibility for sex
education through NCERT by holding
regional seminars. This was needed
because there was not only lack of
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material on sex education but lack of
access to whatever was available along
with lack of preparation on the patt of
teachers.
Initiating the second session on
"Experience Sharing of Voluntary
Organisations
on Sensitising
Adolescents on Human Reproductive
Health", Dr K Srinivasan said a sort
of homogenisation of culture had taken
place among the adolescents. "Whether
you go to India, Japan or USA, a village
or a city, you find the young people
wearing jeans and listening to pop
music".
He thought the Government could
not play much of a role in educating
adolescents because the subject was
culture specific,area specificand region
specific.
Dr K K Varma of Parivar Seva
Sanstha said reproductive health needs
of adolescents were yet to get the
focused attention and there was a need
for more NGOs to take up this work.
Dr Jai Pal Tarang from Family
Planning Association of India drew
attention towards the need for having
training material in local languages
which should also be culturally
sensitive.
Dr Y P Gupta from CARE INDIA
mentioned their project for adolescent
girls in 143slums in Jabalpur in Madhya
Pradesh which catered to approximately
32,000 married and unmarried
adolescent girls. Besides, 33,000
adolescent boys and 13,000 husbands
of married adolescent girls and their
parents were secondary beneficiaries.
The adolescent girls were trained by
Adolescent Girl Health Guides who
were identified and oriented on issues
relating to adolescent health.
The third session of the seminar on
"Perception of Adolescents Regarding
Human Sexuality" was chaired by Mr
Peter MacAllister of CARE INDIA who
said the changes which had taken place
within one generation in India, had
taken two or three generations in the
western world.
Ignorance about sex
TARSHI's (Talking About
Reproductive and SexualHealth Issues)
representative,
Shalini, in her
presentation said her organisation ran
two telephone Helplines in Delhi to
give information, counselling and
referrals on reproductive and sexual
health issues. Out of the calls TARSHI
received, 43 per cent people asked for
basic sex information, like bodily
process, the penile size, breast size,
nocturnal emission, masturbation,
homosexuality, etc. Most of the queries,
whether about male body or female
body, were made more by male
adolescents than female adolescents.
Young women asked mostly about
menstrual problems. Men asked about
sexual problems like impotence,
premature ejaculation while women
asked about conception and
contraception. The maximum number
of males asked about masturbation and
loss of semen. Boysand girls were very
scared of what the partner's reaction
would be. Boys thought they might
not know enough at the time of having
sex and might look foolish whereas
girls thought that they might be accused
of knowing too much. For girls,
virginity was still important. Shalini
revealed that a number of 17, 18 year
old boys had at least one sexual
penetrative experience before marriage
through a commercial sex worker, a
neighbourhood aunty or a girl friend.
Dr Jaya Sharma from CAREINDIA
mentioned a poll that they had
conducted at Jabalpur among adolescent
girls where they found out that friends
were the most common source of
information about sex. Mothers and
female relatives were also consulted.
However, students did not go to their
teachers for such information.
On the question ofwhether marriage
should be arranged by parents, 60 per
cent students responded 'Yes' and 39
per cent said 'No'. Opinion was
divided equally on whether knowledge
of sex would encourage
experimentation. Majorityof girls (69%)
thought men were more 'sexual' than
women. Dr Sharma said some of the
lessons that they had learnt from their
Jabalpur Project were that there was a
need to provide appropriate information
on issues related to human sexuality
and that in order to reach out to
adolescents, one had not only to gain
their confidence but trust of the parents
as well.
Dr SanjayChugh, Consulting Neuro
Psychiatrist, Appolo Hospital who also
answers questions pertaining to sex in
newspapers said masturbation was the
one issue which bothered adolescents,
both boys and girls universally and
which was most misunderstood.
Virginity was not so important any
more in the Indian society and there
were many teenage girls who had had
pre-marital sex. He has discovered
casual sex encounters were increasing
with increased use of alcohol and drugs,
speciallyat late night parties. Adolescent
pregnancies had increased. He said
media provided sexual stimulation
through titillation though there was no
avenue for adolescents to seek
gratification. /I Adolescents think if they
love someone, it is okay to have sex
with that person".
Dr Chugh said there was a lot of
ignorance about sex and sexuality
among the adolescents whose
knowledge of family planning methods
was very limited. He said sexual
experimentation and use of
pornographic films had increased. Dr
Chugh also said homosexuality had
come out in the open though it was a
taboo earlier.
Disputing some of the statements
of Dr Chugh, Ms Rami Chhabra said
that what he talked was relevant only
to a segment of society which had a
different life style and which was
exposed to the media. It would not be
safe to generalise, she said.
A doctor running a sexand marriage
counselling clinic at All India Institute
of Medical Sciences disclosed lot of
women coming to the clinic said 'incest'
was their problem. The father, uncle
or brother wanted to have sex with the
daughter, niece or cousin.
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PFI to Train Panchayat Members in Haryana
A proposal to train Panchayat
members in the State of
Haryana has been approved for
funding by UNICEF. The training
will last for 21 months. A total of
69,000 Panchayat members elected
and working in Haryana will be
trained.
The project aims to develop the
capacity of Panchayat members,
particularly the women members, to
become aware of their role and
responsibilities in fulfilling the basic
development needs of the people and
ensuing social justice. The members
will be trained on issues related to
reproductive and child health, family
planning, population, water and
environment, nutrition, control of
communicable diseases and resource
planning.
The project consists of identifying
a Consulting Organisation and a
credible training Institute or a NGO
in each of the selected district as the
Implementing Agency. The members
of the Implementing Agency will be
trained by the Consulting
Organisation in various aspects of the
salient features of 73rd Constitutional
Amendment, role and responsibilities
of Panchayat Raj members, resource
mapping, decentralised planning,
population stabilisation, reproductive
health including family planning,
gender issues, nutrition, water and
environment,
control
of
communicable diseases and structure
of the health services. PFIwill develop
training modules and video films like
Sansodhan.
Resource Persons will be identified
and trained who in turn will train
Panchayat members at the cluster
level. Each cluster will consist of
4 to 5 Gram Panchayats. The
duration of the training would be
four days.
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P FI is to set up a Training and
Resource Development Centre
(TRDC) for training of voluntary
organisations
involved
in
Reproductive and Child Health
scheme in slums of Delhi. The project
is being supported by the Ministry
of Health and Family Welfare,
Government of India.
The main objective of the training
programme is to develop a cadre of
voluntary workers, who would have
working knowledge and skills on
issues related to the development,
implementation and monitoring of
Reprod uctive and Child Health
Programmes. Those working at the
middle level (Project Co-ordinators/
Supervisors) would be enrolled as
trainees.
The project is proposed to be
implemented in three phases. The
first phase which is financially
supported by the Department of
Family Welfare, Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare, will be
implemented from 1999to 2001. Plans
for Phase II and Phase III are currently
being formalised.
Phase I - Training of personnel of
voluntary agencies (volags) working
PFI to Provide Training I•n
Reproductive Health
on RCH programmes in the slums of
Delhi.
Phase II - Training of volag personnel
working on RCH programmes in
non-slum population of urban areas.
Phase III - Helping in the setting up
of state-level Training and Resource
Development Centres.
The training will be participatory
in nature and adequately supported
by training and teaching aids like
video cassettes, transparencies,
modules, handouts, booklets and
other reference material. A field
oriented practical training will form
an important aspect of this training
programme.
The project promises to develop
a cadre of trained personnel at the
grassroots level engaged in promoting
RCH, MCH and Family Planning
programme activities in Delhi slums.
They~in turn would act as resource
persons for smaller informal groups
like youth groups, mahila mandals
etc., in addition to providing more
effective technical support to their
own organisations.
PFI has already initiated the work
in this regard. Seven modules on
Profile of Delhi slums; Role of
Voluntary Agencies in RCH
Programmes; Evolution of RCH
Programmes; Major Components of
Reproductive and Child Health;
Anatomy and Physiology of Human
Reproduction, Personal Hygiene,
Sanitation and its Management;
Service Delivery Mechanism of RCH
Programmes; Role of Information,
Education and Communication in
RCH Programmes; Developing RCH
Project Proposals; Implementation,
Monitoring, Supervision and
Evaluation of RCH programmes and
Office and Project Management are
under preparation.
PFI is in the process of identifying
voluntary agencies working in
slums. They are being asked to
nominate the representative for the
training.
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Work for II National Family Health Survey is On
Work has started on National
Family Health Survey - 2
(NFHS-2) for which International
Institute for Population Sciences (lIPS)
will act as the nodal agency and
USAID and MACRO International,
USA, along with the East West Center,
Hawaii, USA will provide technical
guidance. Dr K Srinivasan, Executive
Director, PFI is a member of the
Steering Committee for the survey.
The objective of the survey is to
make available the state-level
estimates of demographic parameters
and
their
socio-economic
determinants which will provide some
insight to policy makers and planners
into changes that are taking place in
different states of India. It is expected
that the NFHS - 2 will also be helpful
in getting insight into the new
dimensions added to population
policy due to adoption of
Reproductive and Child Health (RCH)
approach after ICPD conference.
Data collection work in different
states is to be given on contract basis
to a few Population Research Centres
and some Consulting Organisations
selected by a six member selection
committee on the basis of the merit
of proposals submitted by them. After
completing the training of trainers in
the month of July and August,
followed by house-listing, it is
expected that actual data collection
work will start by October 1998.
A salient feature of this survey
is the survey of Haemoglobin for
testing anaemia among mothers and
children by using Haemocue machines
with the help of trained paramedical
personnel.
The work of the project will be
guided by the three committees
appointed by the Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare, Government of
India: Steering Committee, Technical
Advisory Committee and the
Administrative
and Financial
Management Committee.
III
Reproductive and Child Health
Survey at District Level
A Rapid Household Survey is to
be undertaken at the district
level to assess the level of utilisation
of Reproductive and Child Health
(RCH) Services (including family
planning,
ante-natal
care,
immunisation, knowledge and
awareness of HIV I AIDS/STD and
RTI, etc) by the sampled married and
eligible women in each selected district
of India. In the first phase of the
project, about 253 districts,
constituting 50 per cent of a total of
507 districts, are being selected for
household survey. This will be
followed by the survey of the
remaining 50 per cent districts in the
next year. The project is funded by
the World Bank. Household survey
of sampled eligible women and a
separate facility survey of District
Hospital and Primary Health Centres
(PHCs) are the two components
of this rapid survey at the district
level.
will be undertaken in all the 507
districts of India. In the year 1998-
99, the total sample size will be
2,53,000 eligible women, between 15-
44 years (at the rate of 1000 Eligible
Couples per district).
Rapid
household survey will involve field
investigation about the quality,
coverage, and level of clients'
satisfaction of RCH services that are
utilised by the sampled eligible
women from the PHCs and sub-
centres (SCs) and other health centres.
The objective is to evaluate the quality
of RCH services available to them
and the clients' satisfaction under
Target Free Approach, with an overall
aim to suggest ways and means to
improve the quality of RCH services
and their utilisation at the district
level throughout India.
This survey is rapid and will
estimate a limited number of
indicators. The samples will be
obtained both from rural and urban
areas in each district. The survey will
primarily focus upon the following
aspects, along with other related
health services :
• Coverage of ante-natal care (ANC)
and immunisation services,
• Women having sufficient
knowledge regarding RTI, STD,
HIV IAIDS,
• Utilisation of health services and
the users' satisfaction.
Such a district level survey will
provide the essential demographic
and health data for the first time at
the district level, which will help in
health planning and in the betterment
of RCH services at the grassroots
level.
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aternit Centre Mobile Clinics
Organised in Ghaziabad
The Intensive Reproductive
Health and Family Welfare project
supported by PFI for Ghaziabad district
continues to make progress. The
project's chief objective is to achieve the
goal of 'Health for All' in Ghaziabad
district by the year 2000 (as per the 1983
National Health Policy).
The second Jachcha Bachcha Kendra
(Maternity Centre) was inaugurated in
village Makreda on August I, 1998 by
the Director of Socio Economic
Development Foundation (FICCn, Dr N
during this period including one
programme on the occasion of World
Population Day on July 11, 1998 at
Khairpur Gujar in Bisrakh block. These
programmes were organised through a
team of renowned folk singers who
gave the messages of small family, girls'
education and other social reforms.
Hundreds of people from neighbouring
villages participated in the programmes.
Training of Dais in Rajapur block
has been completed. Two training
programmes for Dais have been
organised where in all 24 Dais were
trained. A total of 250 Dais have been
trained in all.
34 mobile clinics were organised
during July-September 1998 in which
1497 patients were examined and free
medicines provided. A fee of Rs 2 per
patient has been introduced as per the
decision taken by the Implementation
Committee.
Counselling for men and women
for small family norm takes place at
Continued on page 8
Hamsa. The process of identification of
villages and establishment of the third
PFI Helps Married Women, Adolescents
centre is in progress which is expected
to be operational by October 1998.
and Pre-Adolescents of Slums near Gwalior
Two orientation camps, one each in
Bisrakh and Rajapur blocks were
organised. 36 elected Panchayat
A project to support integrated and holistic
approach of family planning has been
funded by PFI for slums near Gwalior through
Dr Phatak Child and Mother Welfare Trust,
Information Education Communication
packages are based on well accepted
principles of 'Knowledge Awareness and
Practice'. The married and pregnant women
members were present at Rajapur and Gwalior for a period of three years. The are approached with the package of services
42 at Bisrakh block. lEC material
received from UNICEF was distributed.
SixlEC programmes were organised
project is being implemented in the slum area
with a population of about 25,000. The project
covers three target groups: married women,
adolescents and pre-adolescents. The
and the motivational work is done mainly
through individual counselling.
The adolescents are brought under family
life education, which includes education in
Mahbub ul Haq Passes Away general knowledge, family planning, health
issues of adolescents, nutrition, household
management, immunisation and general
Dr. Mahbub ul Haq, President of the Human Development
Centre, Islamabad, passed away on July 16, 1998 in
education on real life needs, besides skills for
sewing for augmenting family income.
New York.
Until recently, Dr Haq was Special Adviser to the UNDP
The pre-adolescent group is involved in
the programme through activities outside
Administrator. He was known as the 'architect' of the annual school like games, community singing,
global Human Development Reports (HDRs) published by teaching of civic and moral principles, local
UNDP since 1990.
The HDRs have had an enormous influence on public
policies in several countries across the world. In India,
several state governments have begun to prepare human
development reports focusing on strategies at the district
and Panchayat levels.
history and geography, recycling of waste,
pollution control, etc. Besides, they are also
given periodical health check-ups. Thus the
population between the age of 6 to 45 years,
married or unmarried, is brought under the
project activities.
The thrust of Dr Haq's crusading work was that human
beings are the end, and not merely the means of all
development efforts. He avidly argued that the connection between human development
and economic growth is not automatic.
At the global level, Dr Haq was considered the 'guru of human development', who
returned home to Islamabad in 1996 to establish the Human Development Centre. The
Centre has already pUblished two provocative South Asia Human Development Reports.
The Child and Mother Welfare Trust was
established by Dr (Ms) LV Phatak, a renowned
Obstetrician and a pioneer in the field of
population control in the year 1989. The main
objective of the Trust has been to develop a
comprehensive programme for health of
mother and child and implement it by
networking with other NGOs.
The 1998 South Asia Human Development Report focused on education, which was
released in April in New Delhi.
A condolence meeting for Dr. Mahbub ul Haq was held on July 20 at the UNDP
The primary focus of the activities of the
Trust is to promote family planning by prOViding
services to the married women, family life
office in New Delhi. The meeting was attended, among others, by the former Prime education to the adolescents, particularly the
Minister, Mr I K Gujral, former Finance Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, Executive Director girls and initiate programmes including health
of UNFPA, Dr Nafis Sadik and the High Commissioner of Pakistan.
• education for the pre-adolescent groups .•
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Dr Srinivasan, Mr Natarajan
on 2001 Census
Dr K Srinivasan, Executive Director, PFI and Mr K S
Natarajan, Joint Director (Monitoring &Evaluation) have
been appointed members of the Advisory Committee on
technical issues-connected with the holding of 2001 census
of India. The Advisory Committee has been constituted by
the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India.
The first meeting of the Committee was held on July 22,
1998 where the questions to be included in 2001 census, the
broad format of the questionnaire to be canvassed and the
sampling procedure to be adopted were discussed.
•
these camps besides distribution of
contraceptives and general treatment of
patients. The camps are looked after by
two lady doctors posted by PFI through
an extension programme of Wardha
Medical College.
A three day special camp was
organised at Village Raza Jalalpur on
August 29, 1998 with the assistance of
para medical staff of Primary Health
Centre, Bisrakh where the following
activities were undertaken:
a) Immunisation
of children ·and
pregnant women
b) Examination of pregnant women
c) Collection of blood samples from
the patients suffering from fever
d) Family survey of the village.
An ambulance has been provided
to the project by German Embassy on
the initiative of FICC!. In addition to
this vehicle, medical equipment worth
Rs 69,000 has also been provided to
equip the Jachcha Bachcha centres. The
ambulance is being used for mobile
clinics.
•
Mr Natarajan on NCR
Planning Board
M r K S Natarajan, Joint Director (M&E) has been appointed
a member of a Steering Committee constituted by the National
Capital Region Planning Board to oversee and guide the work of
redelineation of the national capital region.
Mr Natarajan has earlier been a member of a SUb-group on
National Capital Region Policy Zones (Demographic Profile) and
Settlement Pattern. The sub-group was a part of a committee
to ensure a properly guided mid-term review of regional plan 2001.
Mr Natarajan's contribution in terms of projecting sub-region wise
popUlation figures along with projections of respective states has
been appreciated by the Board.
•
NEW JOININGS
The following officials joined the
Population Foundation of India
on July 1, 1998 :
Dr R K Rath joined as Joint Director
(Project Development).
He was
earlier working with UNICEF.
Ajay Sunder joined as Programme
Officer (Information, Education and
Communication). He was earlier
working as Head of Communications
and Publications with HelpAge India,
a national level NGO working for the
elderly.
semkhothong Haokip joined as
Research Associate for TRDC project
to train middle level NGO workers
involved in Delhi slums in the
area of reproductive and child
health. He was earlier working as
Programme Officer with EFICOR, a
Delhi based national level relief
agency.
•
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Editorial Direction & Guidance: Dr. K. Srinivasan Editor: Ajay Sunder
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