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What the public health system provides

Free does not mean unsupported, and availability is a question for the facility.

Lesson 5 of 5

8 min Text

What this lesson says

  • Condoms, pills, emergency pills, IUDs including post-partum, the injectable and sterilisation are provided through public facilities
  • The implant has been introduced in some states
  • Availability varies by state and by individual facility
  • Counselling should come with any method, free or paid
  • You can have a method removed whenever you choose

This is general education. It is not advice about your own situation, and it does not replace seeing a clinician.

Written lesson.
  1. 1. A range of contraceptive methods is provided free through public health facilities in India under the National Health Mission: condoms, oral contraceptive pills, emergency contraceptive pills, the intrauterine device including immediately after childbirth, the injectable contraceptive, and sterilisation. The implant has been introduced in some states.
  2. 2. Delivery runs through sub-centres, primary health centres, community health centres and district hospitals, with ASHA workers distributing some methods at community level.
  3. 3. Availability is not uniform. A method listed in a national programme may not be stocked at your nearest centre on the day you go, and some have been rolled out state by state. Ringing ahead saves a journey, and the facility itself is the only reliable source.
  4. 4. Free does not mean unsupported. Counselling should come with any method, and you are entitled to ask the same questions about suitability, side effects, what your bleeding will do and how to stop that you would ask anywhere else.
  5. 5. And you can change your mind. A method fitted or started free can be removed or stopped, and nobody may require you to continue with one.
  6. 6. AskHer cannot tell you what is available near you. No facility has been verified and listed here, and sending a woman to a centre that does not stock what she needs is worse than saying so plainly.

All lessons in this course

  1. 1 What actually separates the methods 11 min
  2. 2 Suitability, and why it is a conversation rather than a counter 12 min
  3. 3 The first few months, and what your periods will do 10 min
  4. 4 Emergency contraception, and the windows 9 min
  5. 5 What the public health system provides 8 min Reading now

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