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Goa shows the way in population control

Joseph John in Panjim

Amid growing concern about India's population growth, Goa stands apart with its success in controlling birth rates and implementing family welfare programmes.

According to the state's Family Welfare Bureau's chief medical officer, Emerico D'Souza, Goa has achieved one of the lowest net reproduction rate, infant mortality rate and death rate due to various factors.

Crude birth rate in the state has come down gradually and has touched the lowest level, one of the best in the country. In 1970 it was 27.4 and in 1985 it was 18.5 per thousand but later it declined sharply and currently stands at 14.2 per thousand level.

Similarly, the state has attained below-replacement level fertility, with a total fertility rate of 1.9 children per woman.

Fertility is negligible for woman in the age group of 15 to 19, with only four per cent of total fertility contributed by women of this age group.

While the TFRs for Hindu and Christian women are the same at 1.9 children per woman, for Muslims it is 2.2 children per woman.

According to official records, female sterilisation accounts for 62 per cent of total contraceptive prevalence, but religious differentials are substantial in the state. Traditional methods are more popular among Christian women, Dr D'souza said.

In 1998-99, a total of 4,347 tubectomy operations were perfomed, both mini lap and laparascopic. Till January this year, the state achieved a total sterilisation of 108.36 per cent.

Maternal health programme, which envisages reduction in maternal mortality and ensuring child survival, has also been quite successful in the state.

Family Welfare Bureau's medical officer Dr Jose de Sa said the state's infant mortality rate, which was 18 per thousand live births a decade ago, has declined to 13.12 per thousand live births, the lowest in the whole country.

Dr de Sa said efforts are now being made to sustain the present level of achievement as also for achieving higher health standards by consolidating the existing infrastructure.

He said the strategy for reproductive and child health programme has been changed to ensure more people's participation by way of a bottom-up planning approach, instead of the top-down approach that has been followed so far.

Now the health worker will determine his/her own workload.

Meanwhile, health department sources said there had been no claim so far in this tiny state for the billionth baby. But they did not rule out the possibility of such claim coming up in the next couple of days.

UNI

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