Population Stabilisation & Birth Control 🚼
Why Do We Need to Stabilise the Population? 📊
- Better health care and living conditions pushed the world’s head-count from 2 billion (1900) to 6 billion (2000) and 7.2 billion (2011).
- India’s crowd jumped from roughly 350 million at independence to ~1 billion (2000) and 1.2 billion (2011).
- The growth rate still hovers below \(2\%\) (\(\approx 20\!/\!1000/\text{year}\))—high enough to strain food, shelter, and clothing supplies.
Smart Moves by the Government 🏛️
- Motivate “Hum Do Hamare Do” (we two, our two) 💑👶👶.
- Encourage even smaller “one-child norm” families.
- Legal marriage ages: ♀ 18 yrs and ♂ 21 yrs.
- Offer incentives to couples who keep family size small.
What Makes an Ideal Contraceptive? 🌟
User-friendly, easily available, effective, reversible, almost side-effect-free, and never dulls sexual desire or fun.
Contraceptive Methods – The Big Picture 🗺️
1. Natural / Traditional 🌿
- Periodic abstinence: skip coitus on days 10 – 17 (fertile window).
- Withdrawal (coitus interruptus): he pulls out just before ejaculation.
- Lactational amenorrhea: full breast-feeding for up to 6 months keeps ovulation quiet.
- No devices, so almost zero side-effects, but higher “oops” rates.
2. Barrier 🚧
- Condoms (♂ “Nirodh” & ♀ options) – disposable, private, and guard against STIs/AIDS 😷.
- Diaphragms, cervical caps, vaults – reusable covers for the cervix; often paired with spermicidal creams, jellies, or foams.
3. Intra-Uterine Devices (IUDs) 🌀
- Non-medicated: Lippes loop.
- Copper-based: CuT, Cu7, Multiload 375 – Cu²⁺ stuns sperm motility.
- Hormone-based: Progestasert, LNG-20 – thicken cervical mucus & block implantation.
- Great for spacing births; must be fitted by trained pros.
4. Oral Pills 💊
- Small daily doses of progestogen ± estrogen for 21 days, pause 7 days, then repeat.
- They block ovulation, hinder implantation, and thicken cervical mucus.
- Saheli: once-a-week, non-steroidal, very few side-effects.
5. Injectables & Implants 💉
- Long-acting progestogen ± estrogen shots or tiny rods under the skin.
- Same mode as pills, but lasting months/years.
- Emergency option: progestogen doses or IUDs within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse prevent pregnancy after rape or contraceptive slip-ups.
6. Surgical / Sterilisation 🔒
- Vasectomy (♂): cut or tie the vas deferens through a tiny scrotal cut.
- Tubectomy (♀): cut or tie a piece of the fallopian tube via abdominal or vaginal incision.
- Highly effective but tough to reverse, so treat as final.
Possible Side-Effects ⚠️
Nausea, tummy cramps, breakthrough or irregular bleeding, very slight rise in breast-cancer risk — usually mild but worth discussing with a qualified health-care professional.
Important Concepts for NEET 📝
- Understand the six contraceptive categories and match each to its examples.
- Remember the fertile window (day 10 – 17) for periodic abstinence.
- Know how IUDs (Cu²⁺ vs hormone types) prevent fertilisation and implantation.
- Contrast vasectomy and tubectomy – structures cut, procedure site, and reversibility.
- Recall traits of an ideal contraceptive and why user preference matters.
✨ Stay curious, stay safe, and keep exploring the wonders of human biology! ✨
