Tamil Nadu makes efforts to retain family planning honour

Chennai: Tamil Nadu may have bagged the best state award as far as family planning is concerned.

However, state health officials haven’t stopped there. With the need to ensure that the honour remains, they have been continuing with their efforts. On World Population Day on Monday, city students participated in a rally that was flagged off by health minister C. Vijaya Bhaskar and health secretary J. Radhakrishnan.  

With the United Nations having set the theme ‘Invest in teenage girls’ for the occasion, health officials proudly said there were a plethora of schemes to empower teenage women and ensure they get adequate health and education facilities.

“The state’s population has gone up to almost 7.78 crore. We are taking it
up as our duty to ensure that men marry after 25 years of age and women after 20. We have been conducting camps to create awareness on the importance of adequate spacing between births and to educate the public to follow both temporary and permanent sterilisation methods,” the health secretary said.

To ensure that the state continues to progress in health sector,  Radhakrishnan said community participation is very important.