ABSTRACT
A few developments before Indias independence in 1947 seem to have triggered the announcement of the family planning programme. One was the growing opinion among the Indian nationalists, who were going to be the future leaders of the country, that the country was overpopulated and that a restraining of growth was essential for its development and eradication of poverty. To liberate women from excessive childbearing and prevent unwanted births and prevent women from using primitive methods of abortion, family planning clinics were set up in a few urban centres in the 1920s and 1930s. Apart from the population totals available from the decennial censuses and estimated inter-censal growth rates. In the 1960s, the programme initiated vigorous promotion of intra-uterine device (IUD), intensified sterilization programme and also promoted the use of condoms through commercial and other channels. Among the measures taken to intensify the programme, the National Planning Programme introduced in 1965 the Lippes loop as a birth spacing method.
