Planning preferred to sterilisation

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32431, 19 October 1970, Page 6

Planning preferred to sterilisation

i If Indian parents who already had three children, includ- ( ing a son, wished to be sterilised they were encouraged to do so ( —and the operation was done free of charge, Miss Nancy k Heginbotham said in Christchurch.

Sterilisation must, in time, have an effect on the sub-continent’s overpopulation problem, but it was not the long-term answer to fertility control, she said. Family planning authorities preferred to .see couples spacing and limiting their families from the beginning of marriage. Miss Heginbotham, who has been a missionary nurse in India for 20 yedrs, was matron of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand hospital at Jagadhri, Haryana, North India, and more recently a public health nurse. At the hospital her work included giving family planning advice to patients. For the last three years she has bsen working in rural areas, including Bengal, training Indian nurses in public' health, which involves family planning. Family planning clinics had been established in urban and rural areas throughout India and an increasing number of Indians were seeking advice and treatment as soon as they married to help limit their families, she said. WIDE RESEARCH "The pill is too expensive yet for the poor people and there is no really reliable method for illiterate village women to help them control the size of their families,” Miss Heginbotham said. “But a great deal of research is being done to find a dependable method for these women.” Most of India’s troubles stemmed from the country’s vast over-population of about 550 million, problems such as poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, disease and

shortage of educational facilities, she said. “Family planning education is kept in the public eye (and ear) continually,” she said. "The authorities try to reach the people through radio, newspapers, pictures on hoardings along the streets and on buses, on railway engines and even on the back of rail tickets." RED TRIANGLE The red triangle with a picture of a mother and father, a boy and a girl is the planning association’s symbol seen everywhere in India. Nevertheless, the population of India was increasing by 13 million a year, she said. About 20 million babies were bom a year and people were living longer. “Life expectancy has risen from 27 years to 47 years since I first went there in 1949," she added. Miss Heginbotham has, however, seen tremendous progress during the years she served in India—and in every field of activity, “There has been a tremen-

dous step-up in production, for instance,” she said. “The Government is doing everything it can to increase the agricultural output. Much better farming methods are being used, irrigation is being increased, better seeds and fertilisers are used and the result is known as the 'green revolution.’ ” GAINS OFFSET The huge increase in crop yields is offset by the increase of 13 million more mouths to feed every year. Malnutrition is still rue, but children and nursing mothers are given some preference in the way of extra protein, such as milk biscuits from New Zealand, and milk powder from New Zealand and other countries. "Health clinics in needy areas are doing a fine job in the fight against malnutrition,” she said. . Though she has no immediate plans to return to ( India, Miss Heginbotham has I been giving talks to church groups on India, while she i is re-visiting her homeland. She recently addressed the J Christchurch Presbyterlal's i country day at Scargill on , India, its progress and prob- . lems and the role of the “ Christian Church there. She is now in Wellington. 1 X-W ■ ”