Fact-Finding in Kangra District, Himanchal Pradesh Family Planning Findings April 2012

Post Date: Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Kangra District has a population of 1,076,588.  Kangra has one Zonal Hospital and one Medical College Hospital where most women give birth.  These facilities also conduct the majority of family planning camps for the district.  Kangra has about 50 PHCs where women register their pregnancies and receive basic prenatal health care.

The fact-finding team visited the Zonal Hospital and public health facilities in Nagrota, Shapur, Dari, Khunyara, and MacLeod Ganj. 

 Family Planning Findings:

As far as family planning is concerned, the fact-finding team observed similar patterns:•Female sterilization is the most common family planning method throughout the district. Although health workers distribute condoms, PHC, CHC, and hospital staff all reported that sterilization comprises the majority of their family planning activities.  When fact-finders asked questions about family planning, government health workers immediately discussed female sterilization to the exclusion of alternate forms of contraception.

Field workers based in each PHC or CHC recruit women and provide counselling on sterilization.  Doctors do not provide pre-sterilization counselling for women. Field workers receive an incentive payment for each woman they recruit for sterilization.  The Zonal Hospital was conducting a sterilization camp on the day the fact-finding team visited.  The fact-finding team interviewed a field worker who brought two women to the Zonal Hospital for tubectomies.  She told the team that the incentive money inspired her to recruit as many women as possible.  Field workers receive Rs. 150 per recruit and the sterilization client gets an incentive payment of Rs. 600.