Family Planning in Asia and the Pacific - International Council on ...

In view of <strong>the</strong> fact that an <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g number of coupleswere resort<strong>in</strong>g to sterilization (a cumulative sixteenfold<strong>in</strong>crease from 1979 to 1985), <strong>the</strong> government tookaction to give equal emphasis to non-term<strong>in</strong>al methodsof modern contraception. In March 1985, <strong>the</strong> M<strong>in</strong>istryof Health <strong>in</strong>troduced <strong>the</strong> use of <strong>in</strong>jectable contraceptives<strong>in</strong>to <strong>the</strong> national programme. Subsequently, Norpant wasalso <strong>in</strong>troduced. In addition, a long-act<strong>in</strong>g IUD namely,TCU 380A, was added to <strong>the</strong> programme. Thus manyTable<strong>in</strong>dicators of family plann<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> reproductive healthfur<strong>the</strong>r improved (Table 2).Maturity phase, 1985-1994Dur<strong>in</strong>g this decade, <strong>the</strong> population programme cont<strong>in</strong>uedto ga<strong>the</strong>r momentum; it was transformed from a phasecharacterized by dem<strong>and</strong>-creation to a supply-oriented one,Table2TableTable3221