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'Contraceptive usage rises amid static TFR'

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Speakers at an United Nations Family Planning Association (UNFPA) conference yesterday said use of contraceptives has substantially increased to 54 percent in the last 10 years despite stagnationin total fertility rate (TFR).
They observed that there is a gradual decline in permanent or clinical contraceptive measures while nonpermanent method of contraception continues to be popular.
Speakers at the 'Conference on Dissemination on TFR Studies in Bangladesh' said the current rate of average family sizein Bangladesh is 3.3 in contrast to the desiredlevel of 2.2.
Presenting a paper on 'Fertility
Transitionin Bangladesh', Ubaidur Rob, country director of the Population
Council, pointed out three major reasons attributed to the difference
between actual and desired number of children in Bangladeshi families. The factors are sex or gender preference, high infant and child mortality and contraceptive failures.
About 40 lakh pregnancies occur in Bangladesh per year, of them 10 lakh cases are terminated by induced abortion. About one third of all births are unintended, he said referring to several studies.
He also showed that 3 percent users discontinue pills, 1.3 percent discontinue injectable and 6.5 percent discon-
tinue condoms due to birth control failures.
The TFR was highest in Sylhet region and lowest in Khulna region while the national average is 3.3, Rob said adding that about 1.1 crore oral contraceptive pills are used in Bangladesh every month.
Sultan A Aziz, director of Asia and Pacific division of the UNFPA, later formally launched a book on 'Fertility Transition in Bangladesh: Evidence And Implication'.
Lauding Bangladesh's continued commitment in population control, Aziz, who is currently visiting Bangladesh to attend a regional UNFPA conference, said this is the right time for increasing advocacy at grassroots, focusing on imams who play a key role in mobilising community.
AKM Nurunnabi of Dhaka University's population science department and Dr Nashid Kamal, head of population and environment department of Independent University, made an introduction to the International Conference on Population and Development.
Dr Fazlur Rahman, director general of Family Planning Directorate, Ruksana Khandokar, executive director of Khan Foundation, and Dr Sabbir Ahmed, also spoke with Suneeta Mukherjee, country representative of the UNFPA,in the chair.