Health Ministry launches two new contraceptives

On 5^th September 2017, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched two new contraceptives, an injectible MPA (Medroxyprogesterone Acetate) under the ‘Antara’ programme and contraceptive pill ‘Chhaya’ in New Delhi.

About the new contraceptives:

1. The contraceptives are said to be safe and highly effective.
2.  Antara(injectable) is effective for three months and Chayya (pill) works for one week.
3. This will help to meet the changing needs of couples, especially women, to plan and space their pregnancies.
4. Training of healthcare practitioners from all the states has been completed  also a pool of state and district level doctors and staff nurses have been trained to support the new release.

Availability of the new contraceptives:

1. The new contraceptives have been launched inten states — Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Haryana, West Bengal, Odisha, Delhi and Goa so far.
2. The contraceptives are available forfree in medical colleges and district hospitals.
3. To improve the supply and distribution of contraceptives, the Ministry has launched a software calledFamily Planning Logistics Management Information System (FP-LMIS), designed to provide information on the demand and distribution of contraceptives to health facilities and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs).

Other measures of the health ministry regarding family planning:

1. The health ministry has also launched theMission Parivar Vikas, a central family planning initiative. Its key focus is improving access to contraceptives through delivering assured services, ensuring commodity security and accelerating access to high quality family planning services.
2. The mission is being implemented in146 high focus districts with the highest total fertility rates in the country. These districts are in the seven high focus, high Total Fertility Rates (TFR) states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Assam, which constitute 44% of the country’s population.
3. The main objective of this Mission is to bring down the Total Fertility Rate(TFR) to 2.1 by the year 2025.
4. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare aims to achieve itsgoal of increasing modern contraceptive usageand ensure that 74% of the demand for modern contraceptives is satisfied by 2020.
5. The Ministry remains its focus onincreasing awareness and demand through a holistic communications campaign that has simultaneously been rolled out across all states of India.

Other Static Information:

1. TheMinister of Health and Family Welfare is Mr.Jagat Prakash Nadda.