Population control measures in India – Explained,

pointwise
blog.forumias.com/population-control-measures-in-india/

July 14th, 2021

Introduction

Presently, India’s population stands at nearly 134 crore. According to the UN Department

of Economic and Social Affairs estimates, India’s population will reach 1.5 billion by 2030.
Further, the population will hit 1.64 billion in 2050. This would make India become the
largest populous country, overtaking China. To prevent that India introduced population
control measures.

Apart from the Central government, many states also announced population control
measures. A new draft Bill prepared by the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Law Commission seeks to
control the population by introducing a two-child policy.

Earlier, the Supreme Court also upheld a Haryana government law barring persons with
more than two children from contesting local body polls. But such population control
policies can create imbalances in society and create lasting problems.

About Uttar Pradesh’s population policy

A new population policy released by the U.P government aims to bring fertility levels
down. It also aims to create a population balance among various communities.
Similarly, a draft of the Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilisation, and
Welfare) Bill, 2021 was published a few days ago and is currently open for public
feedback.
It states that any citizen who “violates” a two-child policy would be barred
from:
contesting local bodies polls,
applying for, or getting promotion in, government jobs, and
even receiving government subsidies.

India’s population control measures since Independence

First Five- In 1951, India became the first among the developing countries to
year plan come up with a state-sponsored family planning program. It
emphasized the use of natural devices for family planning.

Second The number of family planning clinics was increased significantly. But
Five-Year since these clinics were largely set up in urban areas, they did not
Plan provide adequate results.

Third Five- The technique of copper- T was adopted. An independent department

Year Plan called the Family Planning Department was set up.

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Fourth All kinds of birth control methods (conventional and modern) were
Five-Year encouraged.
Plan

Fifth Five- National Population Policy was announced in 1976. Some important
Year Plan measures under this policy were,
Increasing the minimum legal age of marriage for girls and boys to
18 and 21 respectively.
Improving the literacy levels of females
Popularise family welfare programmes by using all forms of media
Forced sterilization was permitted, which was later on given up.

Sixth, Efforts were made to control the population by determining long-term

Seventh, demographic aims
and Eighth
Plans

Ninth Five- In 1993, the government had established an expert group under
Year Plan the chairmanship of M.S. Swaminathan for formulating national

population policy.
In 1997, the family planning programme was renamed the ‘family
welfare programme’.

More substantive poverty reduction schemes and economic reforms have raised
labour productivity and employment opportunities, allowed families to
empower women and reduced fertility rates as rational choices.

Need for population control measures

At present, India hosts 16% of the world’s population with only 2.45% of the
global surface area and 4% water resources.
The ecosystem assessments also pointed out that the human population’s role in
driving other species into extinction and precipitating a resource crunch.
So, the population explosion would irreversibly impact India’s environment and
natural resource base and limit the next generation’s entitlement and progress.
Therefore, the government should take measures to control the population.

Challenges with the population control policies

A very high level of population growth can create imbalances, which make the job of
the state more difficult, but the way the issue is being approached is problematic and will
have unintended consequences.

1. The approach is anti-poor, as they tend to have more children than middle-class
people. Further, it is an anti-democratic practice that impairs a citizen’s right to
choice and his/her sexual and reproductive rights.

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2. People have more children if there is a high prevalence of socio-economic
issues such as infant and child mortality.
For instance, the National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-16) reveals that
women who have little access to health and education and those caught in a
cycle of poverty, produce more and more children
3. India’s TFR is about to reach the net replacement rate, or NRR, of about 2.1-2.2.
So, India is not being threatened by a “population explosion”. The National
Family Health Survey (NFHS) and Census data show that in most states, and many
urban areas, the total fertility rate (TFR) has already reached replacement levels
(2.1).
4. Challenge with the two-child policy: If the first two children are girls, one of them
faces a risk to life immediately after birth, as their parents have a preference for
male offspring. This will increase even more female infanticide in India.
According to the 2011 census, the UP had 908 females per 1,000 males,
compared to the national average of 940 females per 1,000 males. The two-
child policy is bound to increase this imbalance.
5. Population control measures address yesterday’s problem: The population
control measures might end up creating difficulties for tomorrow. Attempts to
address the population issue through exclusionary policies will not improve the
quality of life in states. So, this creates problems in the future.
6. Against National Human Rights Commission order: The incentives/disincentives
approach has been denounced in the past by the NHRC after such measures were
introduced by several States in the 1990s and 2000s. i.e., Haryana, undivided
Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha.
7. Global examples: The stricter population control policy from other countries are
not effective in the long run and also tends to skew the sex ratio. China, for
instance, resulted in a significant gender imbalance because of preference for a
male child.

Suggestions to control population

1. If the states want to ensure a lower and stable fertility rate, they first need to
strengthen medical infrastructure and focus on socio-economic issues.
The success of India’s southern states in containing population growth
indicates that economic growth, as well as attention to education, health, and
empowerment of women, work far better to disincentivize larger families
than punitive measures.
2. Adhering to the Cairo consensus: Cairo International Conference on Population
and Development in 1994 stressed population. The Cairo Consensus called for
the promotion of reproductive rights, empowering women, universal
education, maternal and infant health to untangle the knotty issue of poverty
and high fertility. The consensus also demands an increase in the rate of modern
contraceptive prevalence, male contraception. States instead of
releasing population control measures can start to adhere to implementing
the Cairo consensus.

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3. Adopting Women-Centric Approach: Population stabilisation is not only about
controlling population growth, but also entails gender parity. So, states need to
incentivize later marriages and childbirth, promoting women’s labor force
participation, etc.
4. Seeing Population as a Resource rather than Burden:
As the Economic Survey, 2018-19, points out that India is set to witness a
sharp slowdown in population growth in the next two decades.
Further, population estimates also predict a generational divide between
India’s north and south, Fifteen years from now.
So instead of population control policies at the state level, India needs a
universal policy to utilize population in a better way.
5. India needs to look after the ageing population: According to the United Nation’s
2015 World Population Ageing Report, the number of people over 60 years in India
is expected to increase from 116.55 million in 2015 to over 330 million by 2050.
Population control measures will increase the dependency ratio in future. So, the
government has to ensure adequate savings and insurance policies for the ageing
population.

India’s TFRs have been reducing substantially across most States. To hasten the drop,
States should tackle the socio-economic issues confronting India’s largely youthful
demography rather than seeking neo-Malthusian approaches to population control.

Source: The Hindu, Business Standard

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