ABSTRACT

In 2007 the District Health Services in Satara District, Maharashtra, India, undertook an innovative programme, ‘the Second Honeymoon Package’ (SHP), which aimed to reduce the rate of population growth by offering conditional cash transfers (CCTs) to newly married couples who agreed to postpone their first birth by two or three years. The approach differed from India's traditional family planning programme, based mainly on female sterilisation, by promoting ‘non-terminal’ contraceptive methods, such as condoms and pills. The SHP ended prematurely in 2010 without being fully evaluated, leaving unanswered the question of its impact and potential for scale-up.

This paper addresses this question by investigating the perceptions and experiences women and couples who participated in the programme, as well as the views of local health staff. We use quantitative data from a 2010 survey of 1355 SHP participants, in which the third author was involved, and new qualitative data from a total of 26 programme staff and participants, collected by the first two authors in 2015. Participants’ perceptions of the programme indicate that the SHP had many positive attributes, despite some major challenges. We conclude with recommendations for improving and scaling up programmes of this kind in India and elsewhere.

摘要

2007年，印度马哈拉施特拉邦Satara区的地区卫生服务局开展了一项创新计划“第二蜜月配套”（SHP），旨在通过向新婚夫妇提供有条件的现金转移支付（CCT）来降低人口增长率。他们同意将第一胎推迟两到三年。该方法与印度传统的计划生育计划不同，后者主要基于女性绝育，其方式是推广“非最终”避孕方法，例如避孕套和药丸。SHP于2010年过早终止，但尚未得到充分评估，因此尚未解决其影响和扩大规模的问题。

本文通过调查参与该计划的女性和夫妻的看法和经验以及当地卫生人员的观点来解决这个问题。我们使用2010年对1355名SHP参与者进行的调查中的定量数据（其中涉及第三位作者），以及2015年头两名作者所收集的来自26位计划人员和参与者的新定性数据。参与者对计划的看法表明尽管有一些重大挑战，小水电仍具有许多积极属性。最后，我们提出了在印度和其他地方改善和扩大此类计划的建议。