Among the various social institutions, family is the primary basic institution of mankind. It is also the basic unit of development.
The progress of a country can be measured by the state of families and their standard of living. “Happy Family Happy Nation” is a well-known slogan these days.
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For improving the quality of life of the people, it was felt necessary to adopt small family norm as a way of life. Thus the Family Welfare Programme was implemented by the Government as a wholly voluntary programme.
It is an integral part of overall national policy of growth covering health, maternity and child care family welfare, women’s rights and nutrition.
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Family programme in India was started in 1952. But the history of birth control movement in the country is older than that. The first two birth control clinics were established in Karnataka in 1930.
In those days the birth control was not even talked about freely. Only some people belonging to the elite class practised it. Some traditional methods of contraception were used.
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In 1951, when the first Five Year Plan was launched, it was recognised that the growing population was coming in the way of raising the standard of living of the people in a big way.
Therefore, in 1952 Family Planning was adopted as an official programme. It was however a modest beginning.
The programme was reorganised in the Third Plan. A full fledged Department of Family Planning was created in 1966. In the Fourth and Fifth Plans, the programme was given a very high priority.
It was expand and integrated with maternal and child health care. Mass education, motivation services and supplies, training of workers, research and evaluation and association of voluntary organisations with the programme were subsequently added.
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In this way, Family Planning became a familiar part of national scene. More and more people recognised the need for adopting small family norm and the number of the acceptors increased.