State to counsel young couples against teen pregnancy in family planning

Kolkata: The state government plans to observe May 22 to 30 as family planning week, aiming to counsel young couples about the risks of teenage pregnancy and delaying the first childbirth till the mother turns at least 21.

Bengal has an estimated population of over 10.2 crore, and 17 per cent of pregnant mothers are teenaged girls. TOI reported on February 10, 2023, that one in six pregnant women in Bengal was a teenager.

Ahead of the family planning week, DMs, SDOs and BDOs across Bengal have been told to record the age of couples on the Rupashree portal and share the data with CMOHs and other health officials so that the couples can be counselled. The details would help track the services that the health department would provide to women throughout the reproductive period, an official said.

However, the focus of the week would be to identify teenage couples, and ensure their contraceptive use to delay pregnancy at least till the girl turned 21 and to convince them to have a healthy gap between two child births, which would reduce maternal mortality, an official said. "During the family planning week, newly-weds, both teens and older ones, will be made aware of contraceptive use. Extra packets of condoms and enought oral contraceptive pills will be given out so that they do not have to visit health centres often," the official said.

The official added to achieve the goal of one-couple-one-child, the couple protection rate would have to be above 60. The total fertility rate (TFR) for India in 2020 was 2 per woman and Bengal has achieved 1.4, but in some pockets, it is still high. Couples will be re-screening every six months to measure results . "The best performing blocks and health personnel will be felicitated," the official added.

Couple protection rate (CPR)-an indicator of contraceptive use among couples-is found to be rising in Bengal. The Matrima portal data shows in April 2022, the CPR was 42.9 per cent, which rose to 57.2 per cent in April, 2023. East Midnapore tops the CPR chart at 83.8 per cent, followed by Kalimpong at 82.3 per cent and Hooghly with 82 per cent.