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>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>From: Frederick Noronha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2002 14:48:45 +0530 (IST)
>>Catholic Church's stress on 'natural family planning' finds
takers in Goa
>
>By Frederick Noronha
>
>PANJIM: Little-noticed by most, Goa's Catholic Church is
contributing to
>this state's declining population growth. It's doing so by
imparting
>teaching to all of its flock getting married about 'natural
family
>planning' methods.
>
>This explains in part the unusually high adoption at present of
'traditional
>methods' of family planning, that get reported in official
statistics in
>this rather highly educated state which has the fourth-highest
literacy rate
>among states nationwide.
>
>NFHS-2, the National Family Health Survey, recently reported
that current
>use of family planning methods among Christians in Goa is only
a little
>lower (40 percent) than among Hindus (50 percent) and Muslims
(48 percent).
>
>But 'traditional method' use accounts for 43 percent of
contraceptive use
>among Christians, compared to only 15 and 4 percent among
Hindus and
>Muslims.
>
>Socorro Mendes, a Catholic priest who heads the Goa Family
Service Centre,
>takes pride in the fact that this institution got a Rotary Club
award in
>Kolhapur for family planning.
>
>"We pointed out that the Catholic Church doesn't believe in
operative
>methods (of birth-control) but believes in educating people
through natural
>ways," he says.
>
>Brigida Gonsalves, a former school teacher from the North Goa
village of
>Tivim who now works for the Church-run Family Service Centre as
a
>responsible parenthood trainer, imparts knowledge to young
couples the
>Church-approved method of family planning, which is called
'Natural Family
>Planning' or NFP.
>
>"It's quite effective, provided the couples come for a
follow-up," she says.
>
>This knowledge is part of the virtually-compulsory 'marriage
formation
>courses' that the Catholic Church runs for all engaged couples
before they
>can exchange vows at the altar. But the hour-long talk might
not be enough
>to learn the intricacies involved, suggests Gonsalves.
>
>"This method works even in slum areas. Illiterate people are
able to follow
>it," she says, as a couple of coloured pencils and a chart that
needs to be
>marked sit on a table in front of her. "Even if they don't use
pens or
>pencils, they write on the floor or keep records with a piece
of charcoal,"
>she says.
>
>Of course, this method, she says, can be used to space or
hasten the birth
>of children, by understanding more closely the woman's
fertility cycle.
>
>Given economic pressures, widespread education for women in
Goa, the fact
>that many women work outside the home, and such factors, most
use it to
>delay children. Precise figures are however unavailable.
>
>There are differing methods of 'Natural Family Planning', which
primarily
>depends on the avoidance of sexual relations on certain days of
the month,
>depending on the woman's menstrual cycle.
>
>To determine the days of avoidance, different proponents at
varied points of
>time have favoured the rhythm method, the sympto-thermal
method, the
>ovulation method, or the mucus method.
>
>There is a degree of intricacies involved. Some methods, for
instance,
>depend on careful recording of the woman's body-temperature to
calculate her
>'fertility days'.
>
>"Sometimes, I feel it may not be of use (to those without a
religious
>motivation). They may not put in that extra effort at
record-keeping,"
>opines Gonsalves.
>
>In the past, 'Natural Family Planning' has been dismissively
called the
>Vatican Roulette by its critics who see it as being prone to
being
>inaccurate. (Roulette is a game of chance, played with a
revolving disk and
>a ball.) But over the years, the NFP methods have got more
refined in their
>approach. This, contend its proponents, tend to make it more
accurate.
>
>But there are different trends on this issue among Catholic
public opinion.
>
>Valy and Anna Coelho, a Mumbai-returned couple with five
children, are
>strongly committed to propagating the 'natural family planning
methods. "We
>don't have statistics (as to how many practise this in Goa).
This is
>something people don't talk about," says Valy Coelho.
>
>He adds: "But I think the Church in India has fallen in line
with the
>government policy. It has forgotten the real Catholic Church's
teaching that
>birth control used is limited to National Family Planning and,
importantly,
>that this too is to be used only if there is a 'serious reason'
for it."
>
>"(If anyone could use NFP so easily) they could argue that if
they can use
>this, why not use other forms of family planning? After all,
the end is the
>same, isn't it?" argues Anna Coelho.
>
>Such debates apart, the fact is the Church could be also
helping young
>couples by offering at least some pre-marital understanding of
sexuality.
>
>Given its traditional religious orientation, the Church
perspective differs
>from the liberal, commercial or media-driven contemporary
understanding of
>sexuality that dominates the mainstream global debate.
>
>But, having no teaching seems to be worse. In a study published
this year,
>Gracy Andrew and psychiatrist Dr Vikram Patel of the Sangath, a
group
>working on child development and family guidance, found that
'blue films'
>were a source of sex and sexuality-related information for more
than half
>the boys studied.
>
>Over one-third girls, on the other hand, depended on their
mothers a major
>source of information on this subject. (ENDS)
>
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