Huffington Post: When Women Are In Charge Of Family Planning, Everyone Wins
Jyoti Vajpayee, senior program officer for family planning at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in India

“…When women are empowered, they become active participants in decision-making for their family — determining its size, for instance. Enabling women to make informed decisions on whether and when to have children therefore becomes imperative. However, despite the progress made through multiple policy and intervention implementations in the last few decades, there remain some challenges that need to be addressed because for many women in India access to contraceptives is still a problem. … [G]overnments, as well as civil society organizations, should strengthen their commitment to empower women. Irrespective of their economic strata, all women should have access to high-quality health services. Arming them with the right tools and knowledge about reproductive health will put them in charge of making significant decisions like family planning. And when women are in charge of planning their family, everyone benefits” (7/21).