Awareness about family planning seems to be lacking as level of unintended pregnancies are elevating every year. In order to fulfill this aspect Bayer Schering Pharma has teamed up with the Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) and launched World Contraception Day in India on September 26, 2010. As it claims to be the first-ever international awareness campaign, the ultimate goal is maximum awareness on family planning and contraception amongst women and men.
This campaign is initiated with a simple vision that is to ensure a world where every pregnancy is a wanted one. It suggests that instead of going through sterilization procedures at a young age, short-term and long-term contraceptives can be adopted. A survey conducted in Indian urban and rural hospitals apparently revealed some startling facts. It claimed that 27 to 30 percent of abortion seekers are teens. India has a major population of people under the age of 25 years. Due to lack or highly inadequate knowledge of sexual and reproductive health most of them may end up with unintended pregnancies.
Angel Michael Evangelista, Bayer Schering Pharma, Country Division Head India and Head South Asia (India and Pakistan), elucidated, “With our celebration of World Contraception Day this year, India joins 70 other nations around the world in a concerted effort to empower both men and women to make informed choices about contraception and become parents when they are ready. Having a baby is one of the biggest decisions in your life, and at Bayer Schering Pharma, we firmly believe that every child should be conceived by choice, and not by chance.”
A different analysis estimates that each year, approximately 42 million women across the globe seek an abortion because of unplanned pregnancy. Among the total of unplanned pregnancies that occur annually, statistics suggest that 51 million take place due to no usage of a contraceptive method and 25 million as a result of incorrect or inconsistent use of contraception or method failure. India itself accounts for 6 million abortions every year. From these 2 million are spontaneous which and are illegal and conducted in unsafe and unhygienic conditions. The other four million are probably induced. So for advancing awareness about family planning and choices available to avoid unintended pregnancies, the World Contraception Day is triggered.