India is amongst the first countries in the world to initiate action plans and programmes at a national level to attain total reproductive health as a social goal. These programme called 'family planning' were initiated in $1951$ and were periodically assessed over the past decades.

Improved programmes covering wider reproduction related areas are currently in operation under the popular name 'Reproductive and Child Healthcare $( RCH )$ programmes' creating awareness among people about various reproduction related aspects and providing facilities and support for building up a reproductively healthy society are the major tasks under these programmes