India’s Family Planning Landscape

India’s family planning program, which was launched in 1952, is the world’s first such program and has made important strides since its inception.

According to UNFPA’s State of World Population Report 2025, this progress translates into an extraordinary milestone as millions of mothers’ lives have been saved compared to past decades, demonstrating the transformative impact of expanded reproductive healthcare.

Expanding Method Choice

A key feature of India’s current FP strategy is expanding the “basket of choice” so that women and men have more diverse modern contraceptive options. In recent years, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has introduced several new products. Notably, the Antara program – through which depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA)¹ injectables are made available, offering a safe and effective three-month contraceptive product in the public system. Alongside these injectables, the government has added the Chhaya pill² (Centchroman, a non-hormonal weekly oral pill) and launched a pilot for Progestin-Only Pills (POPs)³ . These additions complement existing options like condoms, combined oral pills, intrauterine devices (Copper IUCDs), and sterilization.

Expanding method choice is vital as it moves reliance away from sterilization and toward safer, more convenient, and reversible options. Spacing methods such as injectables, IUCDs, and implants give women greater control over when to start, pause, or change their method depending on their health and life stage. These options are less invasive, improve satisfaction, and ultimately reduce unmet needs while strengthening reproductive autonomy.

Mission Parivar Vikas

To accelerate progress in regions still catching up, India launched Mission Parivar Vikas (MPV) in 2016 as a flagship initiative. MPV targeted 145 high-fertility districts across seven states (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Assam) with TFRs of 3.0 and above.

The program’s approach has been multi-pronged, improving the supply of contraceptives through assured services and a strengthened supply chain, generating demand via outreach and behavior change communication, and enhancing the capacity of health workers in these districts. Over the past few years, MPV has shown encouraging results, prompting the government to scale it up further.

MPV strategies now extend to all other districts in the original seven high-focus states and an additional six states in the North-East. This expansion means that innovations from MPV–such as focused family planning counseling during antenatal and postpartum care, mobile vans for sterilization camps, and enhanced incentives for interval IUCD and postpartum sterilization—are being replicated more widely.

Community Innovations Driving Equity and Inclusion

Beyond policy and products, a lot of the real change in family planning happens on the ground through community-anchored innovations. India’s vast network of frontline workers and civil society initiatives plays a pivotal role in shifting social norms, improving knowledge, and reaching underserved groups. A prime example is the work of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs).

These village-level health workers have been trained to provide doorstep contraceptive delivery and counseling. Under schemes like the Home Delivery of Contraceptives, ASHAs regularly distribute condoms and pills to households, educate couples on birth spacing, and refer women to health centers for IUCDs or sterilization. Their counseling has been shown to increase informed choice and is especially important for young and newly married couples in rural areas.

Innovation is also coming from projects that mobilize youth champions and male partners. The YUVAA initiative (Youth Voices for Agency and Access) was conceptualized to empower young couples with the knowledge, agency, and access needed for informed choices. Funded by our foundation and implemented by Pathfinder International, it is a promising innovation. Between 2018 and 2022, YUVAA trained over 600 young married couples as “social entrepreneurs” (the Yuvaa Corps) who counseled peers on healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies.

Operating across ten districts in Bihar and Maharashtra, these youth ambassadors reached 400,000 couples, delivered contraceptives directly to their doorsteps, and organized group discussions. By engaging husbands and wives together and leveraging digital tools (like a YUVAA mobile app and even virtual reality content for social behavior change), the project improved modern contraceptive uptake among young couples.

It also encouraged male engagement in what was traditionally seen as a “women’s issue.” Such community-led models illustrate how peer influence and targeted counseling can overcome cultural barriers, making family planning a normative lifestyle choice for the next generation. Additionally, initiatives like Lado Panchayats—forums that empower adolescent girls and young women to debate issues such as child marriage and education, re-foster environments where reproductive choice is respected.

India’s journey in family planning reflects how policy, innovation, and community action can come together to create meaningful change. The gains are visible—in rising contraceptive use, safer pregnancies, and healthier families—yet the challenges remind us that progress must be inclusive and continuous.

In the coming years, the family planning landscape will be shaped as much by communities and social norms as by policies and programs. What lies ahead is a broader vision of dignity, health, and opportunity for families across the country. If this momentum is sustained, India has an opportunity to show the world that when family planning is rooted in rights and choice, it becomes a foundation not only for healthier families but for a stronger, more equitable society.