Chandigarh, May 6
Studies conducted by 18 Population Research Centres across the country reveal that child delivery at home by the midwife continues to be preferred Sterilisation is popular among women though less acceptable to Muslims. People have more knowledge about medical termination of pregnancy than spacing of children.

The scenario countrywide shows that private nursing homes are too expensive for the masses. These are frequented by the well-off. Government hospitals are preferred for sterilisation and IUD (intra-uterine device) insertions. For condoms and pills, people go to vendors.

When it comes to reproductive and child health care, the worse are urban slums. Immunization programmes, however, have gained credibility.

Special factors, such as education, the size of family and preference for sons have been found to be “more critical” than economic factors” such as the income level, in the choice of contraception. Induced abortions have been on the rise. This information is contained in the third edition of Population Research Centres in India—an Annotated Bibliography and abstracts of Research; 1994-2001 compiled and published by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), Chandigarh.

It contains 651 entries and snapshots of the work, research studies and surveys done by all 18 centres spread over 14 states and union territories.

Most centres have focused on family welfare programmes evaluating various programmes studying demographic special groups, fertility and population — size, growth and composition. It also deals with the problem of fake entries and cooked up data.

Following are the observations of the Population Research Centres at Chandigarh, located at CRRID and Panjab University, and at Shimla on Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The major stress at these centres has been family welfare.