Population Problems and Need for Family Planning in Nepal

Population problem in Nepal

The total number of people living in certain place in a certain time is known as the population. Population consist of male and female. Everyday some babies are born and some people die. The change of population is the increase or decrease based on numbers. Events like birth, death and migration are the reasons behind population change.

In the context of Nepal, population is increasing. but the rate of population growth does not seem very challenging. The density of population in urban area is greater than in rural area.

In Nepal, the majority of people are indigent. They believe that having more family members means having higher future revenue. Many babies are wanted, especially by farmers and laborers. They believe their child will be able to assist them in their fieldwork. Thus, it is the primary cause of the population's rapid growth. A rise in birthrates, a drop in mortality rates, a rise in immigration, or an unsustainable resource depletion can all contribute to an overpopulation.

Common problems are as follows:

• Food shortages are caused by unchecked population expansion and an inability of agriculture to keep up with it. Fortunately, the global agricultural supply currently outpaces the global population's demand. Food scarcity is a legitimate problem related to population expansion, yet current research indicates that global population growth is slowing down and that population growth is actually declining in several wealthy countries.
• Property shortage: Unchecked population increase can lead to overcrowding and civil upheaval, even if the world's population is still far from being large enough to inhabit all of the planet's habitable territory.
• Insufficient sewage treatment and effluent discharge, as well as a lack of fresh water for drinking.
• Dependence on the economically productive age group is characterized by the proportion of people over 60 and children under 15 years old (15-59 years). A society may be forced to reevaluate how it provides for certain populations and how it allocates resources for such care as a result of changes in population distribution like this one.
• People are active in making the best use possible of natural resources to satisfy their needs. Additional environmental burden is the outcome of this. The ongoing stress on the ecosystem leads to issues including erosion, landslides, floods, and deforestation.
• With increasing environmental pressure, it is also inevitable that levels of air, water, soil, and noise pollution will rise. The end effect is an unbalanced environment, which lowers the standard of living for both plants and animals.
• Deforestation and the destruction of ecosystems that maintain the global carbon dioxide and oxygen balance.
• Climate change
• Permanent land loss for agriculture
• High infant and child death rates: Poverty is linked to high infant mortality rates. Infant mortality is low in wealthy nations with dense populations.
• Factory farming is order to feed big populations Human hazards as a result include the emergence and spread of bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics, severe air and water pollution, and novel viruses that infect people.
• Low life expectancy in nations with the fastest population growth.
• Many people live in unhygienic conditions that depend on the discharge of raw sewage and the disposal of solid waste.
• An rise in theft as people steal more to survive and an increase in crime as a result of the drug cartel.
• The country's capital income has increased as a result of the population growth. This has a negative impact on the nation's economy.

Plan your family's future.
Family planning was considered necessary as early as 1958, when the Nepal Family Planning Association, a private organization, was founded in Kathmandu. The availability of family planning services remained restricted to the Kathmandu Valley until 1968, despite the government's formal adoption of a nationwide family planning program in 1965. Families with a high proportion of uneducated members are seen to have many children. If the majority of the population is educated, overpopulation can be reduced. People with education can perceive and comprehend the advantages of family planning with ease. Of course, educating the general public is essential right now. Illiterate people need to be persuaded to limit their family size. More crucially, by further lowering maternal mortality, raising CPR, and reducing unmet need, a greater emphasis on family planning will assist Nepal in achieving targets connected to Millennium Development Goal (MDG). By reducing fertility or enhancing obstetric care, maternal mortality can be decreased. The first step should be to improve family planning services in Nepal, where there is little family planning. Reduce the infant mortality rate. Parents of infants who pass away for a variety of reasons wonder if their children will actually survive and mature into adults. Parents also worry about how many of the kids living nearby would survive and how many would perish. As a result, the parents are uncertain as to whether or not their newborns will live. For the prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in women sex workers.

Program for family planning in Nepal

• The managed family model will be used to administer the family planning program.
• To lessen the need for permanent vasectomy, the adoption of appropriately blended methods will be advocated as a long-term solution. With a focus on providing high-quality services, this service will be integrated into hospital services.
• Setting goals for NGOs and other institutions from the private sector will assure their participation.
• Ample plans will be made to offer family planning services in locations where they are not already offered.
• As a crucial component of the motherhood program and safe abortion service, family planning will be encouraged.
• Increasing access for the underprivileged, members of the oppressed classes, Madhesis, the talented, Adibasi Janajati, and Muslim women to the emergency health & family planning services, Female Health Volunteers will be mobilized to coordinate with the community based savings & co-operative program, for the resources such women may need.

Need for family planning (Advantages)

Advantages for adopting small family

Numerous perks and advantages come with modest planned families. Beginning with marriage at the appropriate age, a family is planned. In consideration of both legal and biological factors, a female should not get married before turning 18 and a boy shouldn't get married before turning 21. Pregnancy is most secure for a woman's health and the wellbeing of her unborn child when she is between 20 and 30 years old. The ideal reproductive window is therefore thought to be during a woman's twenties. The mother will have enough time to replenish the nutrients her body lost during the earlier pregnancy due to the reasonable gap between the two children.

Because family planning benefits everyone, family planning service providers can demonstrate their effectiveness. Here are a few examples:

• Women: Family planning enables women to safeguard against unintended pregnancies. Family planning initiatives have assisted women worldwide since the 1960s in preventing unintended pregnancies. As a result, numerous women's lives have been spared from dangerous abortions or high-risk pregnancies. If all women could avoid high-risk pregnancies, the number of maternal fatalities could decrease.
  Advantages to mothers
  • By limiting the number of children she has and spacing out her pregnancies, a mother can maintain her health in a small, planned family.
  • It results in less anxiety over unwanted pregnancies.
  • Mother will have more time to devote to other worthwhile pursuits like education, job-related training, and volunteer work.
  • In order to give her children the love and attention they deserve, mother will have more time and energy.
  • Mothers will experience less stress and anxiety because there are fewer kids.
• Children: By assisting women in spacing out births, FP helps preserve the lives of children. Millions of fatalities would be prevented if all babies were born at least two years apart.
  Advantages for the child
  • The youngster will be in an environment that is conducive to his proper physical and psychological development.
  • Child receives a healthy diet, education, parental love, and care.
  • A child can give the family a stable financial foundation.
• Men: FP assists men and women in providing for their families. Men all across the world claim that having a plan for their families enables them to give them a better life.
  ​​Benefits to the father
  • Children can receive greater education, comfort, food, clothing, recreation, etc. from their father.
  • He will feel more at ease and be in good health.
  • He will enjoy higher standards of life, better health, and a more effective workforce.
• Families: Family planning enhances the wellbeing of families. Couples with fewer kids are better equipped to give them enough food, clothes, housing, and education.
• Nations and communities: FP aids in the growth of nations. People's economic circumstances are improving more quickly than in most other countries in nations where women are having significantly fewer children than their mothers did.
  Benefits for the neighborhood
  • The small family norm enables the country to have enough hospitals, schools, and other essential services.
  • Smaller families save money and preserve the environment.

Impact of high fertility

The size of the family has an impact on the standard of living for people. The following aspects of family life are impacted by family size:

• Basic human need: In any culture, other things being equal, the size of the family determines how much of the basic needs (food, clothes, shelter, health care, and education) are covered by per capita income. Similar to this, a smaller family results in a higher per capita share needed for survival and development.
• Income: Growing families result in decreased per capita income. Due to decreasing domestic savings, there are fewer resources available for economic development.
• Nutrition: As families grow, peer capita food and nutrition costs decline, while health standards rise.
• Health: Several studies have found that women and children in large families had greater rates of sickness and mortality. Early marriage followed by too early conception, having an excessive number of children up until the mother's late reproductive age, and these factors have an impact on both the mother's and the child's health.
• Education: When a mother has a good level of education, families are often smaller and infant mortality is comparatively lower, according to research.

Family planning services in Nepal

The involvement of the Nepal Medical Association (NMA) and the beginning of such initiatives in 1959 marked the beginning of FP awareness in Nepal. The Nepal Medical Association then actively participated in the formation of the FPAN. NMA's expertise and the International Planned Parenthood Federation's backing (IPPF). The US provided support at the time in order to have a family planning strategy in place by the government by 1965. Family planning and MCH were combined at this time to form the FP/MCH project, which was run by the department of health. With the help of USAID, further technical assistance for family planning initiatives began as early as 1966. In the three districts of Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur, this took the form of assistance to the MCH branch of the Department of Health. In terms of the kids, it meant giving milk powder to those who needed it and were underweight. To carry out the government-ordered activity, the FP & MHC project was established in 1968 with 4 regional offices. The permanent techniques were given a lot of emphasis in the early phases of FP. One of the techniques adopted was the usage of contraceptives. Despite improvements in contraceptive availability and accessibility between 1976 and 1986, there was little of an impact on contraceptive use. In 1988, the emphasis on sterilization was dropped in favor of a new strategy. The other temporary methods of preventing early pregnancies and better spacing received more emphasis.

The Nepal Contraceptive Retail Sales (CRS) company was founded in 1978 in an effort to promote FP. Through numerous stores across the nation, the CRS coordinates the subsidised sale of medications and condoms. The primary goal of the National Health Policy (1991) in relation to the National Family Planning Programme is to increase and sustain the availability of adequate, high-quality family planning services to communities through all types of healthcare facilities, including hospitals, primary health care centers, health posts, sub-health posts, PHC outreach clinics, and mobile voluntary surgical contraception (VSC) camps. The strategy also aims to support and encourage private practitioners, NGOs, and social marketing groups to support and enhance government efforts. It is intended to mobilize female community health volunteers (FCHVS) to encourage condom distribution and re-supply of oral Dills. Awareness on FP is to be increased through arious IEC/BCC intervention as well as active nvolvement of FCHVS and Mothers Groups as nvisaged by the revised National Strategy for Programme,

Governmental agencies for FP services

The following organizations offer family planning services:

• D(P)HO MCH clinics
• First Health Center
• Medical Post
• Post Sub Health
• Outreach PHC Clinic
• Thapathali's Paropakar Obstetric Hospital
• Children's Hospital Kanti
• Teaching Hospital of Tribhuvan University

Non- governmental agencies for FP services

• Nepal Family Planning Association
• Hospitals in Medical Colleges (Kathmandu Medical College, Nepal Medical College etc)
• Marie Stopes Hospitals
• Hospital Patan
• Community (Okhaldhunga, Amp Pipal Gorkha, & Tansen) were supported by UMN.
• Hospital

International and bilateral assistance in FP

• UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund): UNFPA helps nations use population data for policies and programs that reduce poverty, ensure that every pregnancy and birth is desired, that every child is HIV/AIDS-free, and that every girl and woman is treated with respect and dignity. Beginning in the early 1970s, UNFPA has supported the implementation of five country programme cycles that correspond to GON's sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth developmental plans.
• USAID (United States Agency for International Development): For more than 50 years, USAID has funded programs in Nepal's health sector. The goal of USAIDS is to increase the ability of key organizations to provide crucial medical services that lower fertility and death rates and safeguard the health of Nepalese families. USAID backs MoHP's initiative to use the National Family Planning Program to lower Nepal's overall fertility rate. There are four main areas of emphasis:
  • Increasing access to and usage of high-quality, knowledgeable voluntary family planning services through the public and commercial sectors can reduce fertility.
  • Maternity & Child Health: Improving access to and utilization of essential maternal & child health care services to reduce maternal, infant, and neonatal mortality.
  • HIV/AIDS: Stopping the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs); strengthening national capacities in strategic information, communication, and program management; enhancing access to high-quality care, support, and treatment services through public and non-profit sectors; supporting national coordination of Nepal's cross-sectoral HIV program.
  • Other dangers to public health include: managing infectious diseases, enhancing surveillance systems, and providing technical assistance for prevention and readiness for any avian and pandemic influenza outbreaks.
• Creditanstalt FUR, KfW The German Federal Government has been funding the family planning program's two phases since 1997 through KfW, contributing a total of about 11.3 million euros. The overarching goal is to help reduce the birth rate and the prevalence of STDs, HIV, and AIDS in relation to sexual and reproductive health. In the public, nonprofit, and private sectors, it aims to increase the accessibility and availability of family planning and STD/HIV/AIDS prevention services. Through oral contraceptives, condoms, and Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS), as well as supportive measures for marketing, IEC, and procurement in collaboration with the Nepal CRS Company (Pvt.) Ltd., the program compromises the supply of injectables, iron tablets, and injectables, as well as the supply of various contraceptives and medications for the treatment of
• Sunaulo Parivar Nepal and Marie Stopes International (MSI and SPN): Marie Stopes International (MSI), a global provider of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services, was first established by Dr. Marie Stopes and registered as a charity in the UK in 1973. Around the world, MSI collaborates closely with regional NGOs and supports Partner NGOs with technical and administrative assistance. In order to increase access to and utilization of high-quality FP/ SRH services, MSI currently has partnerships in over 38 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. MSI also adheres to national and international standards. The goal of MSI is to make it possible for people to have children "by choice, not chance."
• IPAS: IPAS is a global organization that strives to improve women's access to sexual and reproductive rights and to lessen the number of people killed and injured during abortions. It is of the opinion that all women should be given the chance to plan their lives, take care of their families, and control their fertility. IPAS aims to enhance the enabling environment while also increasing the accessibility, sustainability, and quality of abortion and related reproductive health services. According to IPAS, no woman should have to jeopardize her life or health in order to access safe reproductive health options.