Deep Tyagi

{{Short description|Pioneer of family planning in India}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2016}}

{{Use Indian English|date=May 2016}}

File:Red Triangle.svg symbol invented by Deep Tyagi indicates family planning products and services in many countries]]

Dharmendra Kumar Tyagi (1928–1969), better known as Deep Tyagi or DK Tyagi, was an assistant commissioner for the Indian family planning program until 1969. An early pioneer of family planning in India and elsewhere, he was a champion of the program under the premierships of Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, and the initial period of Indira Gandhi. He invented the now-pervasive (in India and some other countries) "red triangle" symbol as a branding effort to familiarize and popularize the idea of family planning.{{Citation | title=Vidura, Volume 6 | author=Press Institute of India | publisher=C. Sarkar, 1969 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6JBZAAAAMAAJ | quote=DK Tyagi Dead: Dharmendra Kumar Tyagi, inventor of the Red Triangle — symbol of the family planning movement, died of cancer at Willingdon Hospital, New Delhi on October. Mr Tyagi, who was 41, held the post of Chief of Media in ...}}{{Citation | title=The light is ours: memoirs & movements | author=Avabai Bomanji Wadia | publisher=International Planned Parenthood Federation, 2001 | isbn=978-0-86089-125-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hhzxAAAAMAAJ | quote=The scope of the programme was vastly expanded in 1963 through extension education. The symbol of the red triangle for family planning was devised by Mr Tyagi of the Ministry of Health and came into wide use}}

Many of the mass communication techniques he developed are now used throughout the developing world to combat disease (such as HIV/AIDS) and poverty.{{Citation needed|date= April 2018}} Part of the mission statement of the present-day foundation, DKT International, which was named in his honour, reads: "He was 41 years old at the time of his death, but had already made a major contribution to his country's family planning effort. It was he who was largely responsible for the design and dissemination of a massive communication program that brought awareness and knowledge of family planning to hundreds of millions of Indians. He began his work at a time (1966) when modern contraceptive methods were virtually unknown in rural India. His success in saturating the country with simple, attractive messages and designs (including the red triangle, which is now in use in several other countries) overcame age-old communication barriers and greatly increased public awareness of birth control."{{Citation needed|date= April 2018}}