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Since the 1990s, the global approach to family planning has undergone fundamental transformations from population control to addressing reproductive health and rights. The Indian family planning programme has also transitioned from being vertical, target-oriented, and clinic-based to a supposedly target-free, choice-based programme that champions reproductive rights. Despite contraceptive choices being offered and voluntary adoption encouraged, there is a heavy reliance on female sterilisation. Community health workers, known as ASHAs, are responsible for on-ground implementation of family planning policies and are incentivised to promote sterilisation as well as other methods. This study explored perspectives to understand of the role of female sterilisation in Indian family planning and whether policy is reflected in implementation. Secondary ethnographic data from Rajasthan, which included twenty interviews and five group discussions, were used to understand the perspectives of ASHAs. Primary data included five key informant interviews to understand the perspectives of experts nationally. Data were analysed thematically with a combination of deductive and inductive coding. Themes that emerged included choice, population control and coercion, family planning targets, quality and experience of services, historical factors and social norms. Despite the official policy shift, there appears to be narrow implementation which is still target-driven, relies heavily on female sterilisation, while negotiating between achieving population stabilisation and upholding reproductive rights. There is a need to emphasise spacing methods, ensure a rights- and choice-based approach and encourage male participation in reproductive health decisions.

Birth spacing has emerged since the early 1980s as a key concept to improve maternal and child health, triggering interest in birth spacing practices in low-income countries, and drawing attention to prevailing norms in favour of long birth intervals in West Africa. In Senegal, the Wolof concept of Nef, which means having children too closely spaced in time, is morally condemned and connotes a resulting series of negative implications for family well-being. While Nef and “birth spacing” intersect in key ways, including acknowledging the health benefits of longer birth intervals, they are not translations of each other, for each is embedded in distinct broader cultural and political assumptions about social relations. Most notably, proponents of the demographic concept of birth spacing assume that the practice of using contraception after childbearing to postpone births could contribute to “empowering” women socially. In Senegal, by contrast, preventing Nef (or short birth intervals) is also viewed as strengthening family well-being by allowing women to care more fully for their family. This paper draws on policy documents and interviews to explore women's and men's understanding of Nef, and in turn critically reflect on the demographic concept of birth spacing. Our findings reinforce the relevance of the concept of birth spacing to engage with women and men around family planning services in Senegal. Accounts of the Nef taboo in Senegal also show that social norms stigmatising short birth intervals can legitimise constraints faced by women on control of their body.