_8_ _Fandly Planning Succes Stories i.n Bangladesh and India_ Paidstan-two countries which are not very different from Bangladesh in socioeconomic and demographic characteristics.

In order to assess the evidence of family planning success in the Matlab Area, it is necessary to ascertain whether or not the socioeconomic condition of Matlab upazUla is better than that of average Bangladesh and also whether or not the socioeconomic condition in the Treatment Area is better than that of the Comparison Area. Upazila-level socioeconomic data for Bangladesh are not available, but relative inaccessibility and low-level riverine landscape of Matlab upazila would make it very unlikely for Matlab population to be economically better off than the rest of the country. A survey conducted in 1984 in the Matlab Treatment and Comparison Areas indicate that the population in the Project area were more or less similar to rural Bangladesh in educational attainment, occupational structure and housing condition (Chowdhury and Phillips 1985).

The selection of villages for allocation in the Treatment and Comparison Areas was not made on a random basis. It was made by administrative criteria intended to control costs such as relative accessibility and proximity to Matlab Bazar. It can be argued that the criteria employed had some inherent socioeconomic bias. The 1984 survey, however, shows that the Treatment and Comparison Areas were socioeconomically very similar except for some difference in religious composition and reli ous education. Out of the total number of married women in reproductive age in the Project area 15.3 percent were Hindus and the rest were Muslims. The proportion of Hindu women was higher (19.7 percent) in the Treatment Area compared to the Comparison Area (11.0 percent). Although proportion of women with no secular education was almost same in both Areas-75.4 percent in the Treatment Area and 78.8 percent in the Comparison Area-62.8 percent of women with no secular education in the Comparison Area had some Matlab schooling (emphasizing prayer and recitation of verses from the holy Quran) compared to 43.8 percent in the Treatment Area. The higher proportion of Maktab educated women in the Comparison Area is a reflection of the higher proportion of Muslims in the Area and is likely to have a negative effect on the contraceptive prevalence in the area.

# _Impact of_ **_the_** _Project on_ **_Ferlity_**

Contraceptive prevalence rate at a particular time denotes the percentage of currently married women of reproductive age using contraceptives, that is, protected from pregnancy by contraception (including sterilization) at that time. Table 1 presents prevalence rates for modern contraceptive methods as well as for all methods from 1975 to 1990 (with some gaps) in the Madab Treatment and Comparison Areas and in Bangladesh as a whole. The rates in the Treatment and Comparison Areas have been estimated on the basis of service statistics as well as on the survey data collected in 1978 and 1984. The rates in Bangladesh for 1975, 1979, 1983, 1985, and 1989 have been derived from survey data.

Prevalence rates for all methods including traditional ones are available only for the Treatment Area and Bangladesh and these are not very comparable because the traditional methods are different and the data regarding their use are not reliable. The Project service in the Treatment Area are oriented to modern methods only. Hence it seems desirable to use the prevalence rates for modern methods only for comparative purpose.