Kerala is a state in Southern India and is a popular stop off point for Western tourists. India launched its family planning programme in 1952, just a few years after independence from the British. Kerala was part of that programme, and used a range of social changes as well as contraception to bring down its birth rate. Kerala now has a fertility rate of just 1.8 per 1000, which compares very well with the UK’s 1.7 and is lower than India’s 3.1. Kerala is a very densely populated state, with 819 people per km2, and has 32 million people living there. Its policy to reduce its population growth rate included a range of measures that would DIRECTLY reduce birth rates and some that would INDIRECTLY reduce birth rates;
1. Providing literacy classes in villages – to raise education levels and to help people make informed family planning choices
2. Improving education EQUALLY between boys and girls – this emancipates women, makes them more likely to find formal work and delay child bearing ages.
3. Providing free contraception and advice – to DIRECTLY lower births rates
4. Allowing maternity leave for the first 2 births only – this discourages women from having a third child
5. Improving child health through vaccination programmes – this reduces Infant Mortality which reduces peoples needs to have lots of children (the replacement rate factor)
6. Encouraging a higher marriage age through poster campaigns – this reduces the length of time women can have babies
7. Provide extra retirement benefits to those who have smaller families
8. Land was reformed so that everyone had access to farming land, allowing people to be self sufficient if they had small families
This programme has been a huge success with low fertility rates, slow population growth of 1.2%, more girls going to university than boys, low infant mortality rates (12 per 1000) and a right to literacy programme.
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