Indian Express
20 April 2010
By Anuradha Mascarenhas

The state health department has directed the family welfare centres to take up a month–long ‘family’ survey so that interventions and services can be provided for various age groups including children, adolescents, the 40 plus group and senior citizens.

While the Pune Zilla Parishad has begun the process, the Pune City Family Welfare bureau will also start soon. The survey will end on May 15.

According to Dr Anjali Sabne, Head of the Pune city family welfare bureau , every year an eligible couple survey is conducted and according to statistics of the 2009 survey there were 160 eligible couples per 1000 population.

The population that was surveyed was mainly the low income group –slums and migrant population. Out of the 6.95 lakh people surveyed in the city last year, a total of 1.11 lakh were identified as eligible couples, Sabne said.

The main aim of the eligible couple survey was to find out about the use of contraception and family planning methods, says Dr H H Chavan, Pune district health officer. Now with the ‘family’ sur vey, the aim is to collect information about each and every member in the household.

Under the Reproductive and Child Health programme of the state government new interventions and measures have been planned. Services like immunization for the children, targetted programmes for adolescents and care for the 40 plus group and senior citizens will be easier to provide after the baseline survey is ready.

Last year, there were only 148 men who underwent vasectomies while 51,719 women got sterilized as part of the family planning programme of the Pune city family welfare bureau. A total of 14,226 women used various forms of contraception including oral pills, Copper T and others. There were 35,700 who did not use any form of contraception, Sabne said. This kind of survey helps us identify the target group where we can reach out and provide services. Enlarging the scope of the survey however has entailed more staff and while 160 nurses from Pune Municipal Corporation run hospitals have been trained from tomorrow other staff nurses from the Out Patient Department of municipal dispensaries will be trained for conducting the survey.

This year the target is a population of 13 lakh and along with the help of NGOs, a total of 30 family welfare centres will be involved in the survey. Each nurse will be allotted a population of 50,000 and 50 families for a period of 33 days, says Sabne.

The survey is not restricted to the city alone and while Pimpri–Chinchwad has its own timetable, the Aundh Chest hospital doctors will also be involved with the Pune Zilla Parishad’s schedule for conducting it.

The aim is to collect information about each and every member in the household.Services like immunisation for children, targeted programmes for adolescents and care for the 40–plus group and senior citizens will be easier to provide after the baseline survey is ready