Call for effective measures to ensure contraceptive security

The country's 54 percent fertile couples are now using various types of contraceptive and 43 percent of them prefer modern methods, they said while exchanging views with the newsmen.

According to them, the country will need contraceptives worth Tk 350 crore every year from the year 2015 against the present demand of contraceptives worth Tk 190 crore as the family planning methods are gaining popularity.

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The Deliver Bangladesh, one of the partners of National Integrated Population and Health Programme (NIPHP), funded by USAID, organised the meeting at the Jatiya Press Club.

Bangladesh is widely considered a success story in the world in family planning, with a rise in contraceptive prevalence from eight percent to 54 since its independence and a decline in the total fertility rate from 6.3 to 3.3, the speakers told the newsmen.

Chief of Party of Deliver Bangladesh Mohammod Nurul Hossain, Director of IEM of Directorate of Family Planning Azimpur Dr Sharadindu Dey and Programme Coordinator of Bangladesh Centre for Communication Programme (BCCP) Maruf Kabir addressed the meeting. Jatiya Press Club President Reazuddin Ahmed attended the programme as chief guest.

They said the increasing popularity of contraceptives has resulted in a growing gap between the demand and the available government and donors' support for contraceptive procurement.

Nurul Hossain stressed the need for taking permanent contraceptive security for reducing costs of family planning as only 15 percent of the contraceptive users are now taking permanent measures.

"The government is not allocating money for buying contraceptives and the family planning programme is completely dependent on donors, but the flow of their funds is gradually shrinking. So, the government needs to come up to provide support to meet the future demand," said Nurul Hossain.

He also suggested some measures, including inspiring the people to buy contraceptives and reaching contraceptives to the poor.

"The gap between the projected cost of contraceptives and the donors funding will hit $49 million in 2010. So, alternative measures should be taken to tackle the challenge," Nurul Islam said.

Dr Shradindu Dey called on the fertile couples to take permanent methods of family planning, as it has no side-effects compared to other methods.