Implications of selective feedback in aspects of family planning research for policy-makers in India

Abstract

Research and evaluation on any programme of the size and complexity of India's family planning programme provide essential feedback of information for policy-makers. In India's case the volume of feedback is very large (a cumulative total of about 300 KAP studies from the early fifties is reported). The methodology, utility and comparability of such studies have already attracted criticism.¹ In this article I hope to show that, in spite of an ‘information overload’ from KAP, communication, and evaluation studies (the aspects of family planning research considered here), the feedback is overwhelmingly selective in many important respects, leading to an unbalanced and unduly optimistic basis for further direction of the programme.