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Barriers to family planning service use among the urban poor in Pakistan
Although fertility has shown some decline in Pakistan in recent years contraceptive use remains low. Despite high knowledge of modern methods of contraception (94 per cent of married women know of a modern method of contraception) only 17 per cent of married women of reproductive age currently use a modern method of contraception (Pakistan Reproductive Health and Family Planning Survey 2001; Sathar and Casterline 1998). This is in part a product of poor physical access to family planning services. The coverage and quality of family planning services is poor with only 10 per cent of the population living within easy walking distance of government-operated family planning services (Rosen and Conly 1996). Consequently there exists a large unmet need for family planning services in Pakistan (Mahmood and Ringheim 1997). Previous research however into the barriers to family planning service use has highlighted the importance of looking beyond physical access to examine barriers that arise from the socio-economic and cultural environment in which an individual lives (Bertrand and others 1995; Foreit and others 1978). Pakistan presents an interesting context for examining the range of potential barriers to the use of family planning services with a low level of economic development and strict cultural norms that may inhibit service utilization. This paper identifies the barriers to family planning service use among women in urban slum areas. The paper also examines the characteristics of urban poor women who report different types of barriers to using family planning services. Gaining a better understanding of the types of women who are likely to experience particular barriers to family planning services is valuable for developing service promotion strategies and for informing service delivery protocols.
Adolescent reproductive health in Asia
The reproductive health of adolescents is of growing concern today. The Programme of Action adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development held at Cairo in 1994 stresses the importance of addressing adolescent sexual and reproductive health issues and promoting responsible sexual and reproductive behaviour (United Nations 1994). The reproductive health needs of adolescents have been largely ignored by the existing health services. Therefore there is a need to provide such services and to undertake research in understanding adolescent sexual behaviour and reproductive health.
The ‘Unreached’ in family planning: A case study of the Republic of Korea
The family planning programme of the Republic of Korea has been quite successful yet it has not been able to extend its services to all couples of childbearing age. For example there still exists a group of couples who want no more children and yet are not currently using any contraceptive method. The word “pong-eem “ which literally means “being neglected” i.e. untouched by the family planning programme was coined to describe this group (Park et al.).
Family transition in South Asia: Provision of social services and social protection
Family may be defined as a group of persons related to a specific degree through blood adoption or marriage. The difficulty is that comparative data on the family in the broad definition of the term are not available. The available statistics relate to households defined by location community or living arrangements. Surveys and censuses usually cover all households not merely family households. Nevertheless the latter type constitutes a major proportion enabling the characteristics of the totals to be identified as those of family households. For many demographic socio-economic and political reasons family members may disperse and consequently the size of the household could be reduced although the size of the family would remain unchanged. In Asian countries most young people live with their parents after marriage and later move to another place whenever custom imposes or the economic condition of the new couple permits. Lloyd and Duffy (1995) believe that beyond this natural ebb and flow of family members families are becoming more dispersed. Young and elderly adults spouses and other relatives who might otherwise have shared a home are now more likely to live apart from one another. In 2004 the United Nations observed the tenth anniversary of the International Year of the Family. Thus it appears timely to review some of the trends such as fertility marriage dissolution migration urbanization and ageing that affect the family in the region.
Growing old in Asia: Declining labour supply, living arrangements and active ageing
Several decades ago the discussion on population and development focused on the large size and high growth rate of the population resulting from rapidly declining mortality rates and continuing high fertility which leads to population explosion. Controlling of infectious diseases through the diffusion of public health programmes and the availability of modern antibiotics invented in Western countries were some of the key factors in declining mortality rates in developing countries including those in Asia (Hirschman 2005).
Gender, leisure and empowerment
In this paper the author looks at one important but usually sidelined aspect of gender equity and female empowerment: the access that women have to leisure. Much of the research on empowerment is about women having the resources technical material and physical to take decisions to be physically mobile and to manipulate their larger environment. In turn this empowerment is valorized because of all the good uses to which it is typically put according to the large and growing literature on female empowerment. The autonomous or empowered women is supposed to be good for society and for the family because her autonomy results in lower fertility lower infant and child mortality better household welfare higher contributions to economic development and other benefits. But there is much less concern with what autonomy and empowerment can do for women themselves with the exception of the demographic outcomes like better health.
Translating pilot project success into national policy development: Two projects in Bangladesh
Prescriptions for policy change pervade the research literature on population programmes. While the audience for such conclusions may be receptive to the wisdom imparted established bureaucracies resist systemic renewal and reform. Even if policies are modified in response to research the promulgated changes often fail to influence what public-sector programmes actually do since bureaucratic traditions outweigh reasoned responses to research outcomes.
Social issues in the management of labour migration in Asia and the Pacific
Any discussion of the mobility of labour across borders in a region as huge and complex as Asia is bound to do no more than provide a sketch of a few idiosyncrasies and peculiarities. With a combined population of 3.6 billion the Asian and Pacific region accounts for almost three fifths of the world’s total population. The region’s land mass and innumerable islands have been partitioned into over 50 independent States dividing people usually along lines of ethnicity common language religion and shared recent history. Each one is pursuing independent national policies for political and economic development with varying success creating in the process differentials in standards of living within and between States that often drive people to move. Those differentials have been magnified by the forces of globalization which have spurred the economies of the region but favouring the open and politically-stable countries more than others.
Women’s perceptions of the pill’s potential health risks in Sri Lanka
The birth control pill has been in use for three decades. By the early 1980s an estimated 50 million women worldwide were using the pill and approximately three times as many had used it at some time in their reproductive years (Kols et al.1982).
Why are population and development issues not given priority?
From the time of Adam Smith onward economists have recognized important linkages between population trends and economic development. Yet the attention given to these linkages in international conferences and other venues where policy is debated has varied enormously over time and also according to the issues being discussed: women environment poverty and sustainable development for example. Looking back over recent decades it is hard to escape two conclusions: (a) politics sometimes plays a more important role than dispassionate academic discourse at such meetings and this greatly influences the attention given to population matters; and (b) fads are almost as ubiquitous in international thinking on development issues as they are in matters of dress eating habits and youth culture.
Older persons’ AIDs knowledge and willingness to provide care in an impoverished nation: Evidence from Cambodia
Since the beginning of the global pandemic assessing knowledge and attitudes regarding AIDS has been an important subject of research and for good reasons. Given the unusual features of HIV/AIDS there is considerable potential for misunderstanding important aspects of the disease that could affect both behaviours related to risk exposure as well as reactions to those known or believed to have contracted HIV. Most research on knowledge and attitudes has focused on young or prime aged adults. Far less common are systematic assessments of knowledge and attitudes among older persons especially for developing countries presumably because they are thought to be at less risk of exposure. In fact older persons are also at risk of infection even if less so than prime age adults and their numbers will grow as effective treatments increasingly allow those infected at earlier ages to survive to old ages. Still infected persons aged over 50 constitute a relatively modest share of the total caseload especially in the developing world (Knodel Watkins and VanLandingham 2003).
Who has correct information and knowledge about HIV/AIDS in China?
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is the late clinical stage of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The first AIDS case in China was reported in 1985. By 1998 new HIV infections had spread to all provinces autonomous regions and municipalities. It has been estimated that HIV/AIDS prevalence among adults rose from less than 0.002 per cent (10000 cases) in the period 1990-1995 to about 0.2 per cent (1 million cases) in the period 2000-2001 (UNAIDS China 2002; WHO 2001). While the rate is still low in comparison with some other affected countries there is no indication that the spread of HIV/AIDS in China will be controlled or will slow down in the near future (Zeng 2001; UNAIDS and WHO 2002).
Multivariate area analysis of the impact and efficiency of the family planning programme in peninsular Malaysia
The contributions of development and of family planning programmes to fertility decline in third world countries have been the subject of enquiry and controversy for several decades. Although opinions still differ on the relative influence of development and the provision of family planning services on fertility there is a growing consensus that both factors are important and may influence fertility.
Attributes of active ageing among older persons in Thailand: Evidence from the 2002 survey
Thai people’s life expectancy has risen from 59 to 72 years between 1964 and 2005 (Prasartkul and Vapattanawong 2005) while the proportion of persons aged 60 years and over in Thailand has been dramatically increasing from 4.6 per cent in 1960 to 9.5 per cent in 2000 (National Statistical Office (NSO) 1960 and 2000). It is expected that Thailand will face a “population ageing” crisis in the year 2017 when older persons will constitute approximately 14 per cent of the total population an increase from 7 per cent in 1987 (Jitapunkul 2000). In other words the percentage of older persons will double within 30 years and will further increase to 25 per cent of the total in 2035 based on a recent population projection done by the Institute for Population and Social Research Mahidol University (2006). This means that Thailand has only a relatively short time to prepare to respond to the various challenges brought about the greying of its population and in particular issues related to the health welfare housing and long-term care of older persons.
Raising our own awareness: Getting to grips with trafficking in persons and related problems in south-east Asia and beyond
It is generally agreed that the problem of trafficking in persons is increasing perhaps rapidly. This has not happened in a vacuum however but against the background of an unprecedented growth in programmes and policies to combat this problem.
Population ageing and demographic dividends: The time to act is now
Every country in the Asian and Pacific region is in the midst of a demographic transition that is producing large changes in age structure with important implications for economic growth and standards of living. In the early stages of the transition high fertility and declining infant and child mortality produce a bulge in the population at young ages. The middle of the transition is marked by an increase in the share of the population concentrated at the working ages as large cohorts of children reach adulthood and as the relative number of children are depressed by fertility decline. At the end of the transition the share of the older population increases. In part this is a consequence of continued reductions in mortality rates but of greater consequence are the low fertility rates that characterize the final stages of the demographic transition.
Declining fertility in Japan: Its mechanisms and policy responses
Global population growth has been slowing down over the past few decades primarily because of the almost universal reduction in fertility. From 1970 to 1975 the number of countries with below-replacement fertility was 19 increasing to 65 by the period from 2000 to 2005. The overwhelming majority of those low-fertility countries are in the developed regions. However the number of countries in the developing regions with below-replacement fertility has been increasing substantially over the past three decades reaching 19 in the recent past. The number of countries with lowest-low fertility being those with a total fertility rate (TFR) below 1.3 has grown from 0 to 17 during the same period.
Unintended live birth versus abortion: What factors affect the choices of Vietnamese women and couples?
As the result of a rapid decline recently in fertility levels Viet Nam has largely completed the transition to low fertility. The total fertility rate (TFR) estimated in the 1999 Census was 2.3 children per woman. Previous demographic surveys indicated TFRs of 4.0 in 1987 (Viet Nam Demographic and Health Survey - VNDHS-I) 3.3 for the period 1989-1993 Intercensal Demographic Survey (ICDS 1994) and 2.5 for 1996-1997 Viet Nam Demographic and Health Survey (VNDHS-II). As might be expected the rapid fertility decline in Viet Nam reflects the significant growth of contraceptive use. VNDHS II data indicate that the all method contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) had reached 75 per cent by 1997 and the modern method rate 56 per cent.
Support exchange patterns of the elderly in the Republic of Korea
Most of the Korean elderly rely on support from family members but this tradition could weaken in the future
Does the gender of the child affect acceptance of the one-child certificate? The case of Shaanxi Province, China
Since the late 1970s the Chinese Government has promoted the "one couple one child" population policy to slow the rate of population growth. Couples with one child are encouraged to apply for a one-child certificate that is offered nationwide for those applicants who have signed a contract with a local family planning agency promising to have only one child. In return they receive a monetary bonus and preferential assignment of housing and employment. Chen (1985:55) found that a total of 42 per cent of women with one child in the 1982 One-per-Thousand Population Fertility Sampling Survey had obtained a certificate; 78 per cent of those were in urban areas and 31 per cent resided in rural areas.