A Composite Index to Measure Family Planning Performance with Application to India
AbstractThis paper develops a composite family planning performance index that takes into account the met demand for modern family planning methods and the structure of the met demand or the method mix. Application of the index to India suggests that, although, there has been an improvement in India’s family planning performance, yet it has remained poor throughout the period 1992 through 2016 and there are significant variation in the performance across states/Union Territories and across districts. The classification modelling exercise reveals that districts in India can be grouped into eight clusters in terms of family planning performance and both met demand for modern family planning methods and the structure of the met demand are essentially different in different clusters. The paper emphasises that family planning in the country must be promoted as a development strategy rather than an intervention to limit births.