Need of the Hour: Containing population explosion

The reality boils down to the fact that the Central government spends a paltry sum towards family planning compared to the need. With half its population within the reproductive age group and 68.84 per cent of its population living in villages it is rather a challenging job to educate the people about birth control measures. It is learnt that the family planning measures have to make do with just 4 per cent of the national health budget

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Government of India aimed at a two child policy in regard to population control way back in 1952 and the policy followed by the government initiated a vigorous drive of educating people about use of contraceptives and allaying fears about female sterilisation . The measures thus taken met with some positive results but in no way could reach the desired goal. Reasons like illiteracy, superstitions and religious misconceptions stood in the way of success of the mission. At the inception of birth control measures in 1952 the rate of growth of population was 1.68 per centand by 1961 it rose to 2.02 per cent. In 1981 it rose higher to 2.35 per cent and stabilisation was noticed only from 1985 onwards when the growth rate showed signs of stabilisation with a growth rate of 2.1 per cent in 1988. India today, according to available data has a population of 1,428,627,663 at0.81 per cent increase from 2022.

At a casual glance it may appear that the rate of increase in population since 1988 has shown a remarkably downward trend but there is not much to be happy about.This downward index has a lot to do with spread of education, change of mindset and also economic compulsions . However, this dip in population increase has little to make the situation a comfortable one because India at present has a hefty 142 crores plus as its population and with one third of the land area as that of China, our country is going to overtake the population of the neighbour by 2024 unless of course some magic formula can be arrived at which is most unlikely in such a short span of time. And considering the time it took to lower the graph of population from 2.35 to 0.81 per cent it looks totally impossible.

A question arises here as to the reasons of success of population control measures taken by China in 1979 which is nearly 20 years later than it was taken by our country.To answer the question it can be conveniently said that China followed a carrot and stick policy in the matter of population control . Their adherence to one child norm was strict. They paid in cash or in kind to those who followed the government policy and taxed those who did not. Strictness of the policy can be well understood by the fact that those adhering to the policy of one child were rewarded with cash or with job benefits and those having more than one child were to pay fifty percent of their income as tax. In certain cases the offenders were made to lose even their employment. Looking at the nature of a democratically formed government like we have, sociological circumstances prevalent in the country andreligious obligations, India cannot afford to resort to such strictness in pursuing a policy on population control. In India possible measures to curb this rise could be -- a)educating the illiterate populace, mostly those belonging to the villages and belonging to the weaker economic section about benefits of a small family b) enhancing budgetary provisions for the purpose c) bringing in a legislation by pushing up the age of marriage for females from 18 to 20 d) incentives offered to couples who adhere to one or two child norm and paying more attention to male sterilisation instead of putting stress on female sterilisation alone. . Coercive methods are going only to have a detrimental result as experienced by the country during the days of emergency when there were forcible sterilisations.

There is no gainsaying that undeterred growth of population will add to the herculean nature of the job of creation of avenues for employment, fulfilling of the obligation of education and food for all and other obligations of the state as detailed in the welfare state manual but the methods of tackling the issue must not be harsh ones.

One placating aspect of this issue is the percentage of the young among this whopping number as population. Statistics puts the percentage of population in the age group between 15 and 64 at 67 percent and more encouragingly 50 per cent of the population is either 25 years of age or only a little older. The young and the energetic population no doubt is a great asset to the country but the onus of moulding them into a truly productive asset and providing them with opportunities enough for a push upwards rests on the government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence day speech on August 2019 expressed his mind on the subject . He cautioned the people and also termed it to be a part of patriotism to contribute to the cause of sustainable population stabilisation.But the reality boils down to the fact that the Central government spends a paltry sum towards family planning compared to the need. With half its population within the reproductive age group and 68.84 percent of its population living in villages it is rather a challenging job to educate the people about birth control measures. It is learnt that the family planning measures have to make do with just 4 per cent of the national health budget. At the present rate, unless budget allocation is enhanced and more result oriented efforts are taken, control over population will only beat a snail’s pace and we will be able to contain the unwanted growth by 2100 only.

Many states have started imposing regulatory restrictions to control population and to establish a two child policy in a limited way, covering only a small cross section of population comprising government servants and persons seeking a career in politics. It will be interesting to see the outcome of the Population Control Bill which is yet to meet approval. The bill, however, has provisions among others of imposing penalties for couples not adhering to two child policy such as debarment from contesting in elections and ineligibility for government jobs. Most educated couples today limit their family within one or maximum of two children.

The Department of Human Resource and Family Welfare has to work in coordination to remove superstitions etched in the mind of the illiterate and uneducated in the matter of birth of children and have to change the belief that birth control measures are not in consonance with religious tenets. Monetary incentives to parents and a package of incentives in the field of education to the offspring of couples who adhere to the policy will add to the success of the policy of populationcontrol.