Family is the core unit of any society and the first school for future generation. In India family bonds are very strong and in rural areas joint family system still prevails, here women play a greater role in enfluencing and manifesting the norms and values of society. Therefore women literacy becomes still more important to make them face the challenges of 21st century.

When we talk about alround development and economic growth of India in 21st century the problem of population explosion comes as a major obstacle in our alround achievements. Dr. Radhakrishanan former President of India and eminent philosopher once said on the growing population of India. "A danger signal which we can ignore only at our peril".

The population of India was merely 31 Crores in 1949 which over a period of 50 years has crossed the figure of more than 96 Crores and if this rate of growth is not rectified it would soon cross 100 Crores. In the core sector of agriculture manifold Production has hardly been able to satisfy the growing needs of the population and the availability of foodgrains (per capita) has been significantly reduced which is the basic cause why, in the year 1998 we can not claim having achieved a better living, even though the average wage runs in four figures. Seventy percent of the population of this country lives in villages, so the task is still more difficult to carry the message of development because of illiteracy, ignorance and lack of scientific outlook. People living in rural areas and slums should be convinced that an unplanned growth of family would diminish their chances of better living.

Literacy can be seen as a tool to gear up the process of development. When we talk about woman empowerment and her state and role in 21st century, the socioeconomic and educational status of women has to be raised. This has been established that the literacy level of women living in urban slums and rural areas increases their awareness about health, hygiene, civic amenities and knowledge about developmental process. Where women literacy rates are higher, the infant mortality rate decreases, Literate mothers have smaller families and better economic status.

In the course of time it has been realised that total dependence on the clinical approach has failed to achieve the national population goals. Therefore, integrating demographic concepts with non-formal education and other developmental programmes and the need based strategies are needed to achieve the goal. The unplanned population growth imposes severe stress on the nation's agricultural lands, forests energy sources and welfare programmes. The indoctrinative approach coupled with such factors as high level of illiteracy among the people, low status of women, social and religious beliefs and values have resulted in the failure of many family welfare programmes.

On the basis of the past experiences, it has been increasingly recognised that population education programmes entirely based on the population control programme, would not be sufficient to ensure success. These programmes should have a strong component of education in which parents and children both shall be our target group. A large number of population in the country consists of the persons who are on the verge of attaining the marriageable age within, next 5 to 10 years. They have to be convinced about welfare programme.

This has been generally accepted that the success of population education programme depends to a large extent on the attitudes and values of a particular community regarding ideal family size and the sex of preferred children (male/female). It is, therefore of crucial importance that positive attitude towards small family norm, girl child and other related issues should be developed.

The approach and curricula in population education has to be developed to suit the sociocultural background as well as the educational needs of a particular community while at the same time respecting the sensitivities and characteristics of the target clientele i.e. age, marital status, languages, occupation? literacy levels interests religion socio-economic status.. reading and media habits etc. The content outline of various population education programmes should consist of a combination of demography, rural development, home economics, health and nutrition, social welfare and adult education. our rural women should ultimately realise the concept of personal and community upliftment. The illiterate and semi-literate women have the problem of perception and they need to be convinced through appropriate educational and mass-media measures Literacy can be the most dynamic and influential tool for inducing such changes as building up a positive attitude towards family size, importance of girl child and other related issues. Therefore, it becomes worthwhile to study the role of literacy in building up a positive attitude towards family planning acceptance.

The objectives of this study have been to find out areas and channels of corelation between literacy and family planning acceptance and also to identify the plus points of the existing approach. Such studies aimed to observe corelation between literacy and family planning acceptance can also help to modify the approach and syllabus on population education.

To observe the significant areas and the extent of influence of literacy on the adoption of family planning, literate (up to 10th standard) semi-literate and illiterate females of 15 to 35 age group belonging to same background have been interviewed. The study is based on the data collected from the western rural regions of Chinhat Block in Lucknow. Alongwith .rural areas, the urban slums of Chowk and Husainaganj have also been covered.

The data has been collected through pretested, open ended interview schedule. Alongwith age, caste and educationwise distribution of the respondents, data have also been collected regarding the status of the respondents (females) in reference with their literacy level and decision making process. Besides socioeconomic and educational background of the respondents their level of knowledge about the family planning methods and the adoption rate of spacing and permanent methods have also been considered. Respondent's view points regarding the ideal parenthood, small family norm and child-care practices have been taken care of. Questions were asked to ascertain the respondent's value orientation regarding their male/female child, and the preferred number of children in a ideal family. The findings of the study reveal that

(a) In both the (rural/urban) areas the preferred number of children was three (per couple) while the actual number of children was 4 or 5 per couple.

(b) In the urban areas none of the female respondent had her first child born before the age of 20 years while in the rural areas about 64% female respondents had their first child born before the age of 20 years.

(c) In the urban areas, higher percentage of parents aspire for higher education of their children as compared to rural parents.

(d) The ratio of planned abortions was higher in the urban areas, where the literacy percentage is also high.

(e) Literate respondents of the urbanized areas are better aware of the use of contraceptives and Copper IT" was the most popular spacing method among the urban females., while the illiterate and semi-literate respondents, either do not adopt or discontinue the use of spacing devices.

(f) About 20% respondents even. in the urban slums were not aware of the concept of the population education and the Percentage was still higher in the rural areas. In the rural areas only 50% respondents, appreciated the role o literacy, in accepting the family planning methods, while 25% respondents were not even aware of the benefits an facilities provided.

(g) The ratio of child immunization was also higher among th literate females. Likewise the women living in urban slum were better aware of the concept and benefits of small family.

(h) In eighty percent cases parent's educational status an consciousness about proper child care were the most significant factors behind the adoption of family planning practices while the economic factors exclusively were not the decisive factors as far as family planning adoption is concerned.

(i) Likewise in more than 90% cases personal reasons like urge for a male child and family attitudes are the main reason behind the negative response towards the adoption of family planning methods.

(j) In more than 60% cases in rural areas husbands did not approve the adoption of family planning methods and the traditional norms such as male child preference were the main reason behind the negative attitude towards the family planning adoption.

Conclusions and Suggestions

On the basis of the findings this could be mentioned that the higher literacy level of the respondents provide them a higher status in the family which reflects on their awareness level an inturn the adoption of family planning practices. As have already mentioned that although some of the illiterate females were also aware of spacing methods but they were not adopting family planning devices and only semi-literate and literate females were practising spacing devices. Here it is important to note that i more than 20% cases adopters of family planning devices complains about related health problems. Therefore, it could be suggested that our family welfare workers should identify and approach each and every target couple just after marriage and also should provide them efficient follow up medical services. This could also be suggested that our extension and mass-media programme should cover family as a unit and the stress should be on family health education. They should stress on the Popularisation of the concept of population education while considering the socio economic background and the educational needs of the target groups. Our educational programmes must help in bringing about positive attitude towards voluntary acceptance of family planing devices by the target couples.

It is important to examine the impact of literacy. on the voluntary adoption of family planning to facilitate a successful integration of the concept of population education in our forma and non-formal education programmes. The great influx of unskilled labour into the cities in search of jobs is also taking place

The rate of population growth is higher than the rate of economic growth particularly in rural areas. Civic amenities such as housing, water and power supply, transport and social utilities like schooling, medical and health services fall much short in spite of their constant expansion. Therefore, it becomes important to consider the educational approach regarding proper marriage age and ideal parenthood. The formation of a healthy attitude to reproduction through correct knowledge can only form a sound basis for the future use of scientific measures to control population growth. To millions of young adults with low level of literacy family life education must be given in the context of socio-cultural and economic factors affecting their day to day life.

This has been sought in our New Education Policy to incorporate concept of family planning into non-formal/adult education programme through out the nation. To form strong public opinion, creating an positive atmosphere is of vital importance to. achieve success. The population education programmes can be popularised through (a) media including Television, Radio, Cinema and Press hoarding at public places, (b) service organisations should be formed for achieving these objectives on regional basis, (c) religious books and beliefs should be given a new dimension to convince the people about the programme. Concept of delayed marriages, importance of female child and the new concept of daughters and son-in laws taking care of parents will have to be popularised.

On the basis of the study this could be mentioned that the influence of urbanization and literacy level play a significant role on the level of knowledge and voluntary adoption of spacing methods. The components of population education should be integrated in our formal/non-formal education programmes. The follow-up services should be strengthened and the spacing facilities should be readily available in the rural areas like free distribution of contraceptives etc.

Contact Info:

Dr.(Smt.) Manju Shukla
Director
Shramik Vidyapeeth
Lucknow