India

As early as the 1930s, Pathfinder’s founder began investing in contraception initiatives in India. Here, in 1966, mothers and children attend a family planning information session. A poster on the wall reads “a small family is a happy family.”

Today, Pathfinder’s work in India focuses on advancing the reproductive health and rights of underserved and vulnerable populations, particularly young people.

When adolescents are provided with information about their sexual and reproductive health, they often make life altering decisions—about marriage, planning a family, and staying in school —that help them live healthy, productive lives.

The same courage and perseverance exists in many of the people Pathfinder serves across India, be it an expectant mother making plans for a hospital delivery, or a sex worker educating her peers about HIV prevention.

In recent years, India has experienced unprecedented economic growth and now ranks as the world's tenth largest economy.

Across the country, women and girls of all ages are still in urgent need of quality health services. Adolescents—a critical, growing segment of the population—continue to go without reproductive health information and services. Of a total population of 1.29 billion, adolescents (ages 10-19 years) constitute nearly 30 percent, and investments in their health, education, and employment will shape the country's future. Young girls are especially at risk due to early marriage and early first pregnancy. Without knowledge of or access to family planning education and care, an early first pregnancy often results in another pregnancy shortly thereafter—starting a cycle of reproduction that can adversely affect the health and economic well-being of the entire family.

Pathfinder is committed to the people of India and their right to high quality sexual and reproductive health care. We have a long history of going where the need is greatest, ensuring India’s underserved populations can access the critical information and services they need—from projects testing contraceptive methods in 1953 to integrating family planning into existing social welfare programs in the early 1970s.

In 1999, a grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supported the first large-scale intervention to address the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents and young adults in Delhi slums, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

Since then, Pathfinder's work has expanded to large projects addressing reproductive health and family planning; maternal and newborn health projects; and HIV and AIDS work. Pathfinder supports the Government of India and its partners to increase demand for family planning, reproductive health, and maternal health services, while equipping and empowering health care providers and communities to better address adolescent health, maternal child health, unsafe abortion, and HIV and AIDS.

To advance maternal and newborn health in India, Pathfinder implements programs for women at every step—from home to health facility. With our local partners, we train providers to help ensure safe pregnancies and deliveries and promote life-saving, emergency obstetric care. Pathfinder educates communities to identify danger signs of complications like postpartum hemorrhage—a leading cause of maternal death—and to activate transport systems for women to reach facilities for emergency care.