Family planning programmes and the reduction in fertility in South and Southeast Asia

The fertility level in Asian countries has been declining, albeit at different pace, since the launching of family planning programmes about five decades ago. This paper uses data from published data to examine the relationship between family planning efforts, contraceptive use and fertility in four South Asian and four Southeast Asian countries. Data from Demographic and Health Surveys are used to examine fertility differentials within each country, with special emphasis on the effects of contraceptive use, women’s education, age at marriage, work participation and their status in the family. Of the countries in this study, India was the first developing country to adopt a national family planning programme in 1952, followed by Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, Indonesia and Philippines in the mid- 1960s to 1970. Vietnam and Cambodia adopted a national family planning policy as recently as 1993-1994. The pace of fertility decline in South Asia accelerated only after 20-30 years of family planning program. In contrast, the impact of family planning programme on fertility decline was more immediate in the Southeast Asian countries. Scatter plots and regression analysis show that contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) is related to family planning efforts, and fertility level is strongly associated with CPR.