DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand, like its neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, has reported a decline in adoption of family planning measures, says the latest report of the National Family Health Survey-4.

Health authorities are concerned over failure to popularise contraception methods aimed at controlling population.

Uttarakhand director general (health) DS Rawat accepted that the department had put family planning on the back-burner.

“The department wasn’t able to concentrate on family planning as there were other projects that needed attention. We will try to publicise contraception methods from now onwards,” he said.

The survey conducted for married women, aged between 15 and 49 years, reported a decline of nearly 6% in overall contraception methods used in the state from 2005-06 to 2015-16. The male sterilisation percentage, which was meagre, has recorded a significant drop. Female sterilisation also registered a fall.