In an attempt to make the family planning programme effective in both rural and urban pockets, officials of the health department have asked ASHAs and ANMs to maintain a register of eligible couples block-wise and apprise them of the benefits of the latest family planning measures available.Source: The Times of India 
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Renowned Chinese film director Zhang Yimou has had to pay a fine of $1.2 million (Rs 7.5 crore) for violating China’s strict family planning policy by having three children.The Binhu family planning bureau in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, received the money from Mr. Zhang and his wife Chen Ting, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Source: The Hindu
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Low-income countries rarely have the resource base to develop novel contraceptives to global standards set by the World Health Organization; rather low- and middle-income countries, such as China and India, are actively producing their own contraceptive commodities, within or outside existing patents/licenses, for world markets. The stall on new birth control method development is largely because of muted enthusiasm for research and development by first world world pharmaceuticals. But things could change because of growing contraceptive demand from developing world populations, despite their varied approaches to the issue. 

Source: New York Times
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Although no longer taboo, family planning remains an uncomfortable topic of discourse in many developing countries. Some, especially young and unmarried individuals, shy away from seeking information about contraception, even when available, because of the connotations and stigma surrounding it 

Source: Devex
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The Corporation Maternity Hospital at K. Pudur here will soon get a family planning surgery facility. Mayor V.V. Rajan Chellappa and City Health Officer V.Yasodha Mani inspected the building being constructed to house the family planning surgery unit at the 24-hour maternity hospital on Thursday. “It will be ready in three to four months. The maternity centre has been designated as a community health centre and funding was provided through Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission,” Dr.Yasodha Mani told The Hindu.

Source: The Hindu
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A woman who was operated upon at a government organized family planning camp in Betul district on Monday died on Tuesday. The incident took place at WCL hospital in Pathakheda.

Autopsy of the woman was conducted at the district hospital on Tuesday and the district administration provided an assistance of Rs 50,000 to the kin of the deceased.

Source: The Times of India 
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Among the many manifestations of gender discrimination in India, arguably the most premeditated action involves the so-called boy-preference — the systematic elimination of female foetuses. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report, Laws and Son Preference in India: A Reality Check, could not be more timely. It says the 1994 ban on sex-selective abortions, in order to be more effective, must be backed by comprehensive legal, judicial and police reforms targeting violence against girls and women. 

Source: The Hindu
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Beijing: China on Monday initiated steps to "adjust" its controversial 'one-child' family planning policy to address serious demographic challenges and allow millions of couples to have two children in the world's most populous nation. 

A bill was tabled in Parliament which seeks to allow couples to have two children if either of them is an only child, considered the most significant liberalisation of China's strict one-child policy in nearly three decades. 

Source: The Times of India
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CHENNAI: For a state that prides itself in maternal health, this should be a shocker: One mother dies for every 1,000 sterilisation operations in Tamil Nadu. In five months, between April and August this year, of the 1.39 lakh women who went under the knife for sterilisation, 129 died following the procedure.

While officials in the health department say they have to conduct further investigation to ascertain the cause of death, experts in the field say it is the mad rush to achieve annual targets, and poor infrastructure that claim lives. In the past three years, 190 women died post operation. This year, there has been a three-fold increase.

Source: The times of India
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Contrary to public perception, faith-based organizations from diverse religious backgrounds are key players in the provision of family planning services around the world, and those based in the United States advocate for increased U.S. assistance in this area to boost global health, according to a new Guttmacher Institute analysis. These groups, including some that oppose abortion rights, explicitly connect their advocacy for family planning to their support for maternal and child health projects, based on evidence that birth spacing is critical to lowering numbers of deaths and disabilities. These groups also recognize the crucial role that contraceptives play in reducing the need for abortion overall and unsafe abortion in particular.

Source: Guttmache
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