A remarkable success which gives hope for the future is reported in the March 1992 issue of Asia-Pacific Population and Policy, published by the East-West Population Institute Hawaii. Bangladesh is one of the world’s poorest countries, struggling to provide enough of the necessities of life for its people, heavily overcrowded with an average density of 800 persons per square kilometre. In 1981 the proportion of Bangladeshi married women under age 50 using contraceptives was 18.6%. The 1991 contraceptive prevalence survey indicates that this figure has more than doubled, to 39.9% in the past ten years. Women now have an average of 4.6 live births in their reproductive lives, as opposed to about 7 in the 1960s. Between 1974 and 1980 it is thought that 14.4 million births were averted by the use of contraception.
It appears that the women are keen to take advantage of the contraceptive services offered. This success is partly due to a general awareness of the need to bring family planning services to women in their homes. Some 120 non-governmental organisations provide contraceptive services and these private agencies have been allowed to function freely in the communities. Family planning information and education has received considerable attention on radio and television. Yet despite this success, the population of 115 million if it maintains its current growth rate will double in the next 30 years. In an attempt to obviate this, government training schemes are providing additional field workers and health assistants to provide maternal and child health services as well as family planning. There are government plans gradually to introduce the provision of injectable contraceptives during home visits by the trained personnel.
This success is partly the result of a programme in Matlab carried out by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh, where the overall contraceptive use rate has reached more than 60% and injectables now constitute nearly 50% of the total methods in use. It has been achieved with quite limited resources, and provides a pointer for other similar areas and hope for the future.