Why Family Planning must be key priority in Budget 2017

Just this month, a woman died and five others were critical after surgery at a family planning health camp in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district went wrong.
The woman who died was just 36 years old. The death, according to reports, occurred because the government doctor at the Primary Health Centre cut the intestine instead of the fallopian tube while operating on her.
The tragedy brings home the critical gaps in India’s family planning programs, especially in large parts of rural India. Given this, it is important that the government prioritizes family planning in the upcoming Budget to ensure that young couples are offered information about, and given access to FP options.
In 2015, the Health Ministry announced some welcome measures in this regard, like expanding the basket of contraceptive choices and ensuring their availability in district hospitals. There are now three spacing methods of contraception in the government FP program – Centchroman, Progestin Only Pills, and injectable contraceptives - offering greater choice and independence to users.
But India is still way short of the commitments it has made under FP2020. At the 2012 London summit, the country had promised to provide FP services to an extra 48 million new users by 2020.
The progress report in 2015-16 shows just how far we are from that goal. Less than eight million extra users have been catered to until July 2016. To meet the targeted numbers, the government has to allocate more resources towards meeting the FP needs of the population.
Census 2011 showed that over 10 crore girls in India get married before they are 18 years old. Young couples, across communities, come under great pressure to have a baby within a year of marriage. Many of them want to delay babies but don’t have the information or access to do so.
Expanding contraceptive choices for men and women while important is not sufficient by itself. They have to be empowered to exercise these choices and this has to be done through sustained community awareness campaigns by the government, civil society, and other stakeholders. This needs extra staff on the ground and therefore more funds. The budgetary allocations to health and FP need to be substantially hiked.
India spends just 1.3% of its GDP on healthcare, a figure far lower than countries like Bangladesh, Brazil, Russia, and China. Even Afghanistan and Nepal allocate more. Budget 2017 needs to address this shortfall.