NATIONAL POPULATION POLICY 2000 DEBATES / ANALYSIS
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Recent media articles on India's Population Policy
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Subject: Recent media articles on India's Population Policy
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2000 00:47:13 +0530
From: "DOLKE" <aaasn@nagpur.dot.net.in>
To: "Medico Friend Circle" <mfriendcircle@netscape.net>
POPULATION AND POLICY RELATED NEWS ARTICLES
Published in
Times of India & Economic Times (Internet Edition), India
http;//www.timesofIndia.com/070100/07mlknl0.htm
"RISE IN POPULATION HAMPERS ECONOMIC GROWTH'
The Times of India News Service
KANPUR: Rise in population has led to slow rate of capital formation with
minimum requirements remaining unfulfilled. In 50 years time, planning
deficiencies have remained as they were applying breaks to economic growth.
The need of the hour is to strike proper balance between population growth
and better economic development.
This was the central theme of what state finance minister Harish Chandra
Gupta said at Merchant' Chamber hall during inauguration of two-day national
seminar on "population and economic developments '.
Mrs Jyotsana Srivastava, wife of the finance minister, released a souvenir
to commemorate the occasion. Mr Mahendra Swarup, executive director of
Pepsico India Holding Ltd stressed on proper policy consensus and need for a
vision for development.
Ms Malti Nigam, head and convener of the function, introduced the theme of
the seminar and opined that population growing at disproportionate levels
would prove to be a burden on the economy.
Chief speaker, Prof AK Sengupta, director, Population Research Centre,
Lucknow stated that population policy should cater to the needs of urban
areas but also to the needs of the rural folks, in the absence of adequate
health facilities, lack of massive investments and inadequate
infrastructures facilities prove a hindrance to economic development.
The seminar was presided by Prof KB Pandeya, vice chancellor, CSJM
university. Various research papers were presented during the technical
session. Director of Institute of Development Studies Jaipur, Dr Pradeep
Bhargava, explored links between population growth and poverty.
http://www.timesofIndia.com/140200/14indi6.htm
WHITHER FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAMMES?
NEW DELHI: As India's population races towards the one-billion mark, and is
likely to double during the next 37 years, policy planners are still
debating on strategies to stabilise the alarming growth rate.
While ironically India was the first country to realise the adverse effects
of rapid population growth on social and economic development, formulate an
official policy and launch a national programme of family planning in 1952
as part of the first five year plan, the target set then has not reached its
demographic goals, say experts calling for an urgent need to make a dent in
population .
""However, we have a broader population policy on the anvil which will be
holistic without losing focus of the interventions in terms of reproductive
health, safe motherhood and survival of infant and mother and at the same
time taking into account the concerns of HIV/AIDS and sexually-transmitted
infections,'' says A R Nanda, secretary, department of Health and Family
Welfare.
"The government is now contemplating to have a strong sort of mechanism
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with the highest political commitment with the induction of experts, NGOs
both at the Centre and state levels,'' he says. ""We need to balance the
whole equilibrium between population, development and environment so that we
can have a stable population,'' says Neena Puri, president, Family Planning
Association of India, an NGO.
By the middle of the next century, India's population is expected to rise to
somewhere between 1.5 to 2.0 billion, depending on the pace of the decrease
in the birth rate, say officials. Today women in India average about 3.5
children each during their lifetime, down from the 6.0 at Independence but
an average of two children will be required to eventually bring population
growth to zero. For this, there has to be a new paradigm shift from target
to target-free approach, says Nanda.
""The goals set so far have been ambitious without thinking about
infrastructure or its feasibility. In a programme like family planning what
is most important is the process and not the target set,'' says K
Srinivasan, executive director, Population Foundation of India.
The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in
Cairo in 1994 had recommended in its programme of action that family
planning programmes in developing countries should not be viewed as a policy
intervention measures for manipulating the fertility levels of the
population at the macro level, says Srinivasan.
They recommended that family planning programmes should be viewed as an
integral part of the programmes aimed at improving women's health, women's
rights, reproductive health and gender equality.
Though India, a signatory to the programme of action has abolished
contraceptive targets in its national family planning programmes from 1st
April 1996, we are still grappling with questions caught as we are between
strategies - one that goes straight into family planning, then the ICPD
approach and third development and intersectorial, says Puri. A five-year
review this year agreed on new benchmarks to measure implementation of ICPD
goals covering universal education, mortality reduction and reproductive
health.
Accordingly it was decided that by 2005, 60 per cent of the primary
health-care and family planning facilities should offer the widest available
range of safe and effective family planning methods, essential obstetric
care, prevention and management of reproductive tract infections including
STDs and barrier methods to prevent infection.
But experiences in contraceptive acceptance, after introduction of the
target-free-approach in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and
Madhya Pradesh has proved disappointing with acceptance levels for instance
in up at 50 per cent of the corresponding period when targets were in vogue,
according to Srinivasan.
On the other hand such a drastic change in acceptance has not occurred in
the southern states. Thus while the need for rapid increase in contraceptive
use and reduction in the fertility levels is the highest in the four states,
the policies and programmes are tending to slow down any efforts in this
direction, he notes.
According to present estimates, Rajasthan will achieve total fertility rate
(TFR) of 2.1 by the year 2048, which means that on an average each women
will have two children in her lifetime, reports from the PTI bureau in
Jaipur said.
The state's population which was 4.4 crores according to the 1991 census
increased to five crore by the middle of 1996, according to the state's
recently released population policy. But fortunately with an unmet need for
family planning in the country, the reproductive health approach to family
planning, which is the new paradigm recommended by ICPD, can fill the gaps,
says Srinivasan.
Srinivasan suggests the '"birth- based-approach'', with the target group
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being pregnant women and recently delivered mothers, where the contraceptive
services will be geared to meet the needs of spacing and limitations of this
group of mothers.
There is a need for shifting of target setting from the earlier focus on the
achievement of nationally- stipulated fertility reduction goals to a focus
on the coverage and quality of maternal and child health (MCH) care services
and responsiveness to consumer demand, he says.
Conceding that there are many hurdles in achieving a stable population
through the key sector of family planning, Nanda says countries like
Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand have experienced and done good things which
are replicable in India such as in the setting up of self-help groups and
maternity huts. Building up of self-help groups, and offering a whole
package with literacy as the end result and stepping up of social marketing
of contraceptives are urgent needs, says Puri. (PTI)
http://www.timesofIndia.com/150200/15indi5.htm
TAKING STOCK OF THE POPULATION TIME BOMB
By Kalpana Jain
The Times of India News Service
NEW DELHI: Food requirements and health measures will be among the major
challenges facing India as its population crosses the one-billion mark on
May 11 this year.
What will make the task more daunting is that 17 million people will
continue to be added every year to this population, till the current rate of
growth slows down, said demographer K. Srinivasan of the Population
Foundation of India, at a millenium conference on population on Monday.
The population is expected to stabilise only around 2026 and several states
are projected to show a declining trend much later around 2051, experts
attending the conference said. By 2051, however, the size of the population
would itself be staggering: 1.646 billion, almost double the 1991 population
of 846 million.
Minister of state for health and family welfare N.T. Shanmugam appealed to
all sections to help reduce the population growth trend. "Unless the will
of all sections is summoned and all possible resources are harnessed, the
current trend will lead India to become the most populous country by 2050
with a population of 15.2 million,'' he said.
Ironically, though policy-makers are aware of the enormity of the population
problem, a population policy drafted by a committee under noted expert M.S.
Swaminathan in 1994 still awaits final approval. Shanmugam said the policy
was being finalised by the government.
While some states have managed to achieve a decline in fertility rate, many
others have fared poorly. The minister said states like UP, Bihar, MP,
Rajasthan, Assam, Haryana and Orissa would have to make special efforts to
stabilise their population.
Several states are expected to enter a period of declining growth in a few
years. Demographer P.M. Kulkarni, from the department of population studies,
Coimbatore, in a paper presented at the conference, said the first to begin
this turnaround is Tamil Nadu, followed by Kerala, Punjab and AP. West
Bengal, Gujarat, Orissa, Haryana, Karnataka, Assam and Maharashtra will
follow.
He has however warned that states like MP, Bihar and Rajasthan are expected
to see population growth even beyond 2051. UP is projected to be the worst
performing state with the highest population growth even in 2051.
UNFPA, in its population report, has estimated that the eventual lack of
water for irrigation could cut India's grain production by 25 per cent. In
sub-Saharan Africa and parts of the Indian subcontinent, which together
contain about a third of the world's population, aquifers are depleting and
so is the per capita crop land.
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Meanwhile, estimates on consumption done by the M S Swaminathan Research
Foundation show an increasing demand for foodgrain. A study presented at the
conference says the household demand for foodgrain is projected at 180
tonnes for the year 2000. In another 20 years, this demand is projected to
increase to 262 tonnes. The cost and effort to feed such a large population
will pose a pressing challenge, it concludes.
http://www.timesofIndia .com/160200/16home5.htm
POPULATION POLICY STALLS DELIMITATION
The Times of India News Service
NEW DELHI: The Union cabinet on Tuesday announced the much-awaited
population policy though without clarifying the sensitive issue of
delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies.
The policy, which has a special focus on health and education to achieve a
stable population by 2045, includes freezing of the number of seats in the
Lok Sabha at the current level of 543 - which is based on the 1971 census
till 2026. As per the original schedule, the number would have changed in
2001.
Government sources, however, did not clarify whether the decision meant that
the number of seats allocated to different states can be changed (taking
into consideration the population increase or decrease in individual
states), while keeping the overall number at the present level. They also
refused to say whether the government plans to bring a delimitation Bill
after getting the population policy passed in the coming session of
Parliament.
The issue is a sensitive one as southern states such as Kerala and Tamil
Nadu, which have taken a lead in population control, feel that if the
delimitation is carried out next year as per the original schedule, northern
states will gain at least 40 seats. '"The government should consult other
parties before taking a final view on delimitation,'' said Prithviraj
Chauhan of the Congress.
It is learnt that controversy delayed the approval of the policy, formulated
as far back as 1994 by a committee under M S Swaminathan. After discussing
it threadbare in three separate meetings, the present cabinet, in keeping
with the suggestion of noted demographers, decided to freeze the number of
seats till 2026.
The policy, while continuing with the two-child norm, takes a comprehensive
look at issues determining population growth. Health care of mother and
child, health and sanitation as well as compulsory education figure high on
its agenda. It aims to achieve a reduced population growth through
decentralised decision-making.
Its immediate, medium and long-term objectives will be reviewed regularly by
a National Commission of Population chaired by the Prime Minister. Chief
ministers, NGOs and public health professionals will be among the other
members of this commission.
Union family welfare secretary A R Nanda told The Times of Indiathat a
detailed action plan has been worked out which will be followed virtually
for the next 45 years but more intensively for the next 10 "crucial''
years.
The action plan will have the following main features : *★ Self-help groups
at village, panchayat levels comprising mostly housewives who will interact
with health care workers and gram panchayats. * Elementary education to be
made free and compulsory. * Registration of marriage, pregnancy to be made
compulsory along with births and deaths.
The policy aims at overall development to ensure a natural fall in
birthrate. Therefore, special packages have been woven in to take care of
high maternal mortality or absence of health services in rural areas.
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So, for routine delivery cases, maternity huts with the help of anganwadi
workers will be provided in villages. For complicated cases which require
tranportation of the woman to the nearest centre, the policy proposes soft
loans to start ambulatory services, Nanda said. The idea is to start a
national movement which is not imposed from above.
The policy, in a significant move, also proposes starting the practice of
Licensed Medical Practitioners (LMPs). They would be given intensive
training to practise basic health care after completing their schooling,
Nanda said.
The policy also proposes certain incentives: * Couples below the poverty
line who undergo sterilisation after two children will be eligible for
health insurance plan. * Also for couples below the poverty line who marry
at the legal age of 21. * Cash incentive at the birth of a girl child as
also to mothers who have their first child after the age of 19.
http://www.timesofIndia.com/170200/17editl.htm
THE FAMILY WAY
For years, people have wondered whether successive governments had really
internalised the paradigm shift from a number-oriented to a people-friendly
approach to population as articulated at the landmark Cairo conference in
1994. The confusion arose because every now and again a political worthy
would come up with innovative suggestions to 'control1 the unbridled
reproductive propensities of the underprivileged. Even though the Vajpayee
government has laid to rest many apprehensions with its new national
population policy, vestiges of the earlier mindset remain. In seeking to
postpone the population-based delimitation of Lok Sabha seats for another 25
years, the government is seeking to avoid sending the wrong signals to
states which have lagged behind in putting in place enabling measures to
reduce fertility levels.
While the Pandora's box of delimitation is best left unopened at this
juncture, the issue of enlarging representation to reflect the aspirations
of a growing population cannot indefinitely be
postponed. By pushing through its population policy, the government hopes
that the glaring disparities in fertility management between the large,
populous northern states and their more successful southern counterparts
will be narrowed, after which delimitation can be debated. In the meantime,
there are several positive schemes in the policy, such as giving panchayats
incentives to strengthen facilities to reduce infant mortality, promoting
primary education, and providing creches and child-care centres.
However, while propagating the principle that once you take care of the
people, population takes care of itself, a distinction is sought to be made
between categories of people. The policy states that health insurance will
be provided to those below the poverty line who undergo sterilisation after
having two children. Implicit in this is a belief in the myth that it is the
underprivileged who mindlessly go about producing children. Numerous studies
have shown that even among the most backward and illiterate sections of the
population, people are acutely aware of the need to limit their families so
that their children can get the best possible quality of life. It requires
no incentive or disincentive to convince people to have small families; all
they need is access to quality health care, education and a choice of
contraceptive methods.
Another discordant note is that of a special reward for women who marry
after 21 and opt for a terminal method of contraception after the second
child. Here, the onus for regulating the family size falls squarely on the
woman despite the fact that most women have little say in the matter. Union
health minister N T Shanmugam is on the right track when he says there has
to be greater male involvement in planned parenthood, but the focus should
also extend to bringing more male workers into the health service delivery
systems. To expect the new policy to bring about any
dramatic decline in population momentum would be unrealistic. A third of
India's population comprises youth and even if they restrict their children
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to two per family, the numbers will continue to grow for years to come. The
challenge will be to persevere with non-coercive policies in the face of
increasing numbers until replacement fertility levels are reached.
http://www.economictimes .com/16Q200/16poli01.htm
CENTRE ADOPTS A NEW POPULATION POLICY
Our Political Bureau
NEW DELHI 15 FEBRUARY
In a move that is expected to give a boost to states to pursue population
control measures, government today proposed a freeze on the number of seats
in the Lok Sabha at current levels upto '26 as part of its new Population
Policy.
The meeting of the Union Cabinet here today also endorsed the setting up of
a new panel on population headed by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee to review
the implementation of the National Population Policy 2000. The new
three-pronged policy aims at population stabilisation by '45 and continues
with the two-child norm, besides outlining 16 "promotional and motivational
measures" to implement this vigorously. Among the measures identified for
pushing the small family norm were community level incentives, and family
welfare-linked health insurance schemes for families below the poverty line
who undergo sterilisation after two children.
The cap on number of seats in the Lok Sabha is perceived as rectifying a
lopsided policy by which states such as UP and Bihar - although they failed
to match the population control goals as effectively as others such as WB,
Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh - were allowed more Lok Sabha seats
based on an increased population ratio. The move, according to the policy,
was meant to allow states to "fearlessly pursue" the policy agenda.
While the immediate objective of the policy has been described as aimed at
meeting the "unmet" needs for contraception, health care infrastructure,
health personnel and integrated service delivery, the medium term objectives
are outlined as aimed at bringing the total fertility rate to replacement
levels (two children per couple) by '10 by a vigorous implementation of
"inter-sectoral strategies'. The long-term objective was described as aiming
to achieve a stable population by '45, at a level consistent with the
requirements of economic growth, social development and environmental
protection.
The Cabinet's endorsement of the new population policy has received a mixed
response from NGOs and health professionals. Although the move to cap the
number of Lok Sabha seats upto '26 is perceived as a positive one, the
"promotional measures" outlined for encouraging the new population policy
vigorously have already invited sharp criticism. The proposal for
multi-pronged "promotional measures' to push through population control
measures was mooted in the early-90s by M S Swaminathan (as chairperson of
the panel on the draft population policy), and included measures such as
debarring those with more than two children from contesting
in elections, starting from the local bodies. Even allotment of ration cards
was proposed to be based on the two child norm.
The proposals had come under stringent criticism by both health
professionals and NGOs who contended that this was tantamount to penalising
women whose options regarding number of children were socially limited, and
that the measures sought to view health facilities for women in general
primarily as reproductive health. Responding to this, Mr Swaminathan had
later toned down his recommendations. Against this, the contention now is
that by once again mooting "disincentives", the BJP-led government at the
centre was violating the very norms laid down in the Cairo declaration on
population control, to which India is a signatory, and which repudiated all
"incentives" to implement population control, but focused instead on
education and awareness campaigns regarding a better standard of living.
Health professionals and women activists from NGOs are of the firm view,
based on past experience in states such as UP where the government employees
used both coercive methods to falsify statistical records on the CPR (couple
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protection rate) and earn "rewards', that today's decision once again takes
the focus away from increased budgetary provisions for overall health and
social facilities to women, including those endorsing sustained nutritional
norms for both mother and child, those aimed at controlling the infant
mortality rate and those aimed at providing compulsory functional education
for all children, particularly those in the weaker economic strata.
http;//www.timesofIndia.com/180200/18mdel3.htm
LAWS TO CHECK RISING POPULATION LIKELY SOON
By Sanjay Kaw
NEW DELHI: The Delhi government will set-up a panel of experts to suggest
measures for framing stringent laws to curb the population menace in the
Capital. The panel, to be headed by health minister A K Walia, will consist
of doctors, lawyers and social workers. ""Our main objective is to put a
check on the population menace, which has been playing a havoc with the
city's infrastructure,'1 Walia told The Times of India on Wednesday.
He's right. The growing population has been the root cause of so many
problems - water shortage, power breakdowns, encroachments and deteriorating
law and order situation. The Capital's population has increased 26 times
since Independence. It has now reportedly touched the 1.40 crore mark. The
main reason for the increase is the influx of migrants from different parts
of the country. Rough estimates show there is an influx of about five to six
lakh people every year. Walia said the panel would also recommend measures
to ensure that more people adhere to the ""two children'' norm. ""We may
give some incentives to such people,'' he added.
A private members Bill on similar lines has been moved in the Delhi assembly
by deputy speaker Kiran Choudhry. The Bill suggests only those persons
having one or two children should be allowed to contest the assembly and
corporation elections.
The Bill had generated a major debate in the political circles. Sources said
the Bill became controversial primarily because there are only 26
legislators in the 70-member assembly who are having one or two children.
Delhi assembly speaker Prem Singh himself has eight children. And nine other
legislators have more than five children.
The Bill states: ""Every person and his spouse who, after a period of one
year from the date of coming into force of this Act procreates more than two
children shall not be eligible to contest the elections ... shall not be
allotted any house under any housing scheme launched either by the
government or any local authority... shall not be entitled to any loan
provided by the Delhi government...''
Though the Bill was introduced in the House in April, it was not tabled in
the subsequent monsoon session. And Choudhry had protested, saying, ""By not
bringing the Bill before the House, my rights as a private member have been
abrogated.'' Walia said the panel would also study the Bill. ""After all, we
want to provide the best to our citizens . . . So, we should not play
politics in matters which directly affect the common people.''
http;//www.economictimes.com/180200/18opin04.htm
FREEZING DEMOCRACY
PoliTalk / Narendar Pani
In freezing the number of Lok Sabha seats for the next twenty five years,
the government has met the demands of states, like Tamil Nadu, that have
been relatively successful in controlling their population. A fresh
delimitation of constituencies would necessarily have given more seats to
states that were lax in population control. By freezing the number of seats
the government has chosen not to reward this laxity. But not rewarding
failure is quite different from solving the problem. This move would have
been a solution to the problem if the backward states had
deliberately gone slow on population control in order to gain more seats in
Parliament.
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The freezing of the number of seats would then have removed this incentive.
But it would take a very staunch conspiracy theorist to believe that this is
the reason for the poor population control record of the backward states. It
is not as if the performance of these states in other
fields has been very much better. And there is little in the performance of
the political leadership in these states to suggest such farsightedness. The
lack of population control is more likely to be part of a general failure.
Freezing the number of seats is then not going to make the lax
states suddenly enthusiastic about population control. All that the freeze
will mean, as long as the current inter-state variations in population
control continue, is that the imbalances that now exist will multiply. And
the extent to which representation in Parliament will be distorted must not
be underestimated. It must be remembered that the current delimitation of
constituencies was done for the 1977 elections on the basis of the 1971
census.
* It is already nearly three decades out of date. And if the delimitation is
postponed for another twenty five years, the constituencies will be based on
population statistics that are over half a century old. That the
constituencies in parliament do not accurately reflect population patterns
on the ground is not a matter of academic detail. It has a direct impact on
the quality of the democratic polity. As it is the backward states that are
lax in population control, the freezing of constituencies will reduce the
representation in Parliament of those belonging to the most backward regions
of the country. This under-representation could lead to a further decline in
their faith in parliamentary democracy. And with large parts of states like
Bihar already under the rule of the gun, a further loss of faith in
democracy can be expensive.
To view the matter entirely in terms of a conflict between states that have
controlled their population and those that have not is also misleading. Some
of the most glaring distortions occur within states. The changing population
profile of a constituency is not influenced by the overall growth rates of
population alone. It is also affected by migration. Most of our cities have
grown with migrant populations settling down on their periphery. The
population in the peripheries then grows much more rapidly than that of the
inner cities. And it is this factor that causes the biggest imbalances in
the size of constituencies.
The Outer Delhi parliamentary constituency has an electorate that is several
times the size of New Delhi constituency. And this pattern occurs away from
the capital as well. Uttarahalli assembly constituency on the outskirts of
Bangalore is around ten times the size of Shivajinagar in the heart of the
city.
These disparities in representation have a direct impact on the quality of
urban life. The newly developing areas on the periphery of the cities are
most in need of fresh investment in infrastructure. But as they are
under-represented in elected bodies they are less effective in getting their
demands met. This disparity is accentuated by schemes that offer fixed
amounts to MPs irrespective of the size of their constituencies. And cities
that surround themselves with a periphery of backwardness should be prepared
for an increase in crime.
The price that is being paid to meet the demands of state governments that
have a relatively better population control record is thus very high. But it
is unlikely that political parties will recognise this reality. Political
decentralisation still remains, by and large, confined to the level of the
states as a whole protecting their interests. And as long as there is no
political mileage in protecting the interests of each constituency, the
distortions caused by faulty delimitation will be brushed under the carpet.
http://www.timesofIndia .com/200200/20busi2.htm
NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT STERILISATION
By Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar
I was brought up to believe that democracy means representation of the
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people. Our politicians seem to believe it means representation of condoms.
This is the implication of the Union Cabinet's decision to freeze the
allocation of Lok Sabha seats between states till 2025.
The allocation was due to be revised in 2001 to take into account changes in
population. But Tamil Nadu and Kerala complained that a revision on the
basis of population would reduce the number of Lok Sabha seats for southern
states with good family planning records, and give more seats to northern
states which had neglected birth control.
The Cabinet has accepted this logic, and so have all parties. The very lack
of controversy seems scandalous to me. Democracy is about giving a voice to
every citizen. It is not about population control. Every living person has a
right to representation regardless of religion race or creed: can he or she
be denied representation on the basis of family size? Instead of regarding
representation in Parliament as a fundamental right of citizens, our
politicians view it as a sort of Republic Day award for family planning
performance.
No wonder our democracy is looking increasingly moth-eaten.The notion that
freezing seats will penalise states that neglect family planning reveals a
sad misunderstanding of the issue. Low population growth need not imply
success in family planning at all. It can simply mean a high death rate. In
1981-91, Bihar population growth of 24.1 per cent was actually less than the
national average of 24.7 per cent. Uttar Pradesh growth was only a bit above
the national average at 25.5 per cent. These state have the highest birth
rates, but also have such high death rates that population does not grow
much.
So, basing Lok Sabha seats on population growth can, in the worst case, mean
rewarding a state that kills off most of its babies through neglect. Just
look at the accompanying table. It shows how little connection there is
between population growth and the birth rate. The highest ever birth rate
for the country was 48.1 per thousand in the decade 1911-211, yet population
actually declined by 0.4 per cent in that decade because of mass deaths
caused by Asian Flu.
The second highest birth rate was the all-India figure for 1921-31, yet
population growth was only 11 per cent over the decade because of a high
death rate. Kerala and Tamil Nadu boast that they have low population growth
rates today, yet their actual rates in the 1981-91 decade--14.3 per cent and
15.4 per cent respectively-- were far higher than the all-India average of
the 1910s and 1920s, when birth rates went into the stratosphere.
So, whom does the freezing of Lok Sabha seats really penalise? It penalises
the poor, especially those in the most backward states with the worst
facilities. They have the largest families, not because they are stupid but
because in states with high infant mortality it makes sense to have many
children.
Besides, for poor families, many children represent a form of old- age
security. The notion that UP and Bihar will respond to the freeze on Lok
Sabha seats by promoting family planning is laughable. The move simply
reduces the representation of the poor without providing any stimulus for
social improvement.
India remains a country where a great many people, especially in the middle
class, are convinced that force is needed to reduce fertility. This is plain
wrong, and ignores evidence the world over. Dozens of developing countries
have reduced their fertility rates without force or penalties, and this is
true even of dirt-poor country like Bangladesh.
This neighbour of ours has reduced its fertility rate from 6.1 children per
woman in 1980 to 3.1 children in 1998, which means it has now overhauled
India (3.2 children per woman). So much for the RSS myth that Muslims do not
practice family planning, and must be coerced into it.
The Indian fascination with penalties reflects a mind-set that Mao would
have applauded but liberals like me deplore. Democracy began in America with
9 of 12
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Recent media articles on India's Population Policy
the cry, No taxation without representation. Indian politicians have put a
new spin on this: no representation without sterilisation.
http://www.timesofIndia.coin/220200/22edit4.htm
A PEOPLE'S POLICY
Development Should Stabilise Population
By JAYANTHI NATARAJAN
Perhaps the most eloquent testimony to the priority accorded to reproductive
and health rights of the community are the headlines which appeared in many
national dailies reporting the cabinet clearance given to the draft
population policy on February 15.
The issue of delimitation and the freeze on the number of Lok Sabha seats
seemed to be the primary issue, and the population policy appeared to be
piggybacking on the question of delimitation. Ironically, what should have
received centrality of consideration was not even articulated as an issue.
Reproductive health, particularly that of women, is a basic human right, and
it is absolutely vital that reproductive rights, along with 'empowerment*
and 'development1, should stand on their own, and be pursued as the
foundation of a just and humane democracy, rather than be coopted as an
effective strategy to achieve population goals. Such an approach would be
more unkind than a continuing imperviousness to basic human rights and
gender issues.
Utopian Democracy
>From the somewhat sketchy details that were made public, it would seem that
the government seeks to initiate several sensible and positive measures to
achieve population stabilisation.
i - =- •
It has been announced that the 'promotional and motivational measures' under
the policy include linking of the disbursement of cash award for compliance
with requirements regarding antenatal check-up, institutional delivery by a
trained birth attendant, registration of births and so on. Further
incentives proposed are special rewards for those who marry after the legal
age, those who register the marriage, where the woman has the first child
after she has reached 21 years of age, and those who adopt terminal methods
of contraception after the second child.
There are also rewards for panchayats and zila parishads 'for exemplary
performance' in universalising the small family norm, achieving reductions
in infant mortality, promotion of literacy with completion of primary
schooling and provision of creches and child care centres to promote
participation of women in paid employment'.
And so the list goes on. The irresistible reflection follows that if
panchayats actually managed to implement a fraction of the measures
enumerated in the policy, India will achieve not just population
stabilisation, but become an Utopian democracy, unparalleled in human
history for the quality of life of its citizens.
The Union health minister has been quoted as saying that the main philosophy
behind the policy was that population 'control' could be better achieved by
improving the lot of those below the poverty line. And therein lies the
rub -- population stabilisation should evolve out of and be the result of
development instead of development being used as a tool to achieve
population stabilisation. Nothing could be more callous or harmful to the
aspirations of the most vulnerable sections of our society than such an
approach.
The minister has also called upon states to 'fearlessly pursue' the small
family norm, thus incorporating a dangerous element of coercion into the
initiatives planned by the government. History has shown us that apart from
being a violation of the freedom of choice, coercion in achieving the small
family norm is a self-defeating exercise.
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Further, population policies, in order to be truly sensitive, should take a
holistic view of society and not view those who live below the poverty line
as mere targets of population "control' policies. Significantly, the very
first time that the World Bank made an explicit reference to women was in
the context of a 1977 population speech which called for expanding poor
women's earning options in order to "delay marriage, increase intervals
between child bearing episodes and foster sensible decisions about child
bearing.' (World Bank, 1981). Indian policy planners should be careful not
to fall into the jargon trap of vested interests, but should try to work
towards a gender blind and equitable society where population stabilisation
will seamlessly emerge as a consequence of development.
Chauvinistic Belief
The government has not revealed the full text of the draft population
policy, but has merely talked about "16 promotional and motivational'
measures to achieve the small family norm. The measures in themselves are
unexceptionable -- even praiseworthy. However, it is absolutely vital for
the country to review the background, goals and context in which these
initiatives are situated, and generate a national debate on this all
important issue. It is, therefore, incumbent upon the government to initiate
a wide ranging national debate on this subject, and gain the benefit of the
views of experts and ordinary people alike, with particular reference to
NGOs who have been doing wonderful work in this field. If this is not done,
the population policy will be nothing more than meaningless rhetoric seeking
to achieve impossible and illusory goals.
There is a totally unnecessary air of secrecy about the whole exercise,
giving rise to avoidable suspicion about the contents of the full text.
While the 16 measures announced so far are positive incentives, even though
the context is vague and unrealistic, it is equally important to ensure that
disincentives, coercion or gender discriminatory measures find no place in
the policy.
■
It has been our bitter experience that women have often been made the target
of population stabilisation policies, and have suffered greatly because of
the poor quality of care, and sub-standard conditions under which these
programmes are operated. On the other hand, government-sponsored population
measures rarely focus on male contraception, because of a widespread
chauvinistic belief that contraception will affect virility. Thus, there is
a strong and legitimate requirement that the population policy should not be
used against the interests of women or the minorities, and it is important
for government to reassure the country on this score.
Welfare Language
Finally, it is somewhat worrisome, that very important words and concepts in
this area are being casually tossed around without a proper appreciation of
what they really mean. For example, in the words of expert Gita Sen, ""The
three catchwords of the above approach -- unmet need, reproductive health,
and women's empowerment require careful content analysis of their meaning
and implication for policy and programme1'. If they continue to be used as
loosely as they are at present, then even well-intentioned steps taken in
this regard, will prove counter-productive. This is evident from the fact
that the welfare language used increasingly in statements of population
policy objectives is rarely translated into concrete health goals.
For the population policy honestly to address the challenge of human rights
and women's empowerment, it is absolutely essential to base all the
initiatives on the "ethics of voluntarism, the human rights of individuals,
and the reproductive rights of women'. Until this happens, the debate will
continue.
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NPP
A/’3:Z
Sunbjecfc NPP
Dates Mon, 3 Apr 2000 23:45:17 +0530
From: "DOLKE” <aaasn@nagpur.dot.net.in >
To: "Medico Friend Circle" <mfriendcircle@netscape.net>
Dear friends,
Ravi Narayan sent me a xerox copy of the NPP 2000. Sridhar has also offered
the same. Later I received the original document from MoHFW. And now I have
the soft copy as a 191 KB PDF file. Let me know if you need the same.
Arun
Arun Dolke
’’Sakshi", 18/7 Ujwal Nagar Wardha Road, Nagpur - 440 025 India
Tel. : (91-712) 260709
Email : aaasn@nagpur.dot.net.in
Medico Friend Circle (MFC) - eForum
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/28 93/mfc/mfc.htm
Send email at mfriendcircle@netscape.net to unsubscribe MFC eForum.
http://www.timesofIndia.com/310300/31edit4.htm
Accent on Services
A People-friendly Population Policy
By SAROJ PACHAURI
AT long last, India has a National Population Policy that was approved by
the Union cabinet last month. Several earlier efforts were thwarted for a
variety of reasons. The most significant was that led by the Swaminathan
Committee that submitted a policy document to the government in 1994. The
latter was widely debated but was eventually buried unceremoniously, The
report was prepared shortly before the International Conference on
Population and Development (ICPD) at Cairo. At that time, the pre-Cairo
discussion and dialogue was at its peak in India. It espoused 'pro-poor,
pro-women and pro-nature’ sentiments and incorporated many of the concepts
subsequently articulated at ICPD.
Soon thereafter, the government began translating within the national
context the programme of action articulated at the ICPD. The first
significant step was taken in April 1996 when method-specific contraceptive
targets were removed nation-wide. The second major initiative was to launch
the Reproductive and Child Health Programme in October 1997. In February
2000, the National Population Policy was approved by the Union cabinet and
tabled in Parliament in March.
India now has a stated policy to sanctify significant changes already
underway. It must endorse concepts currently being implemented nationally.
In keeping with this mandate, the policy document states: ''Stabilising
population is an essential requirement for promoting sustainable development
with more equitable distribution. However, it is as much a function of
making reproductive health care accessible and affordable for all, as of
increasing the provision and outreach of primary and secondary education,
extending basic amenities including sanitation, safe drinking water and
housing, besides empowering women and enhancing their employment
opportunities, and providing transport and communication.’’
Stable Population
Pqp z
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The immediate policy objective is ''to address the unmet needs of
contraception, health infrastructure, health personnel, and to provide
integrated service delivery for basic reproductive and child health care.’
The medium-term objective is ''to bring the total fertility rates to
replacement level by 2010, through vigorous implementation of inter-sectoral
operational strategies.’’
The long-term objective is ''to achieve a stable population by 2045, at a
level consistent with the requirement of sustainable economic growth, social
development, and environmental protection.’’
While the emphasis on unmet needs and infrastructure development is
appropriate, it is unclear how the replacement level fertility or zero
population growth will be achieved within the stipulated time periods.
To pursue policy objectives, 14 national socio-demographic goals have been
specified which primarily incorporate efforts to improve reproductive and
child health and include development goals, including free and compulsory
education for girls and boys. Twelve strategic themes are delineated to
enhance decentralised planning and implementation, convergence of services
at the village level, meeting unmet reproductive health needs and addressing
the needs of disadvantaged and unserved populations, and mainstreaming
Indian systems of medicine. Operational strategies and action plans have
been developed for each theme. However, these can at best provide ideas for
developing decentralised action plans.
A very significant move has been to freeze up to the year 2026, the number
of Lok Sabha representatives, on the basis of the 1971 census, This is
indeed a necessary step for India where there are significant differentials
in fertility reduction, and also other socio-development indicators within
regions and states, especially between the North and South. For example, a
growing concern in Tamil Nadu has been that it would be punished for doing
well in contrast to states such as Uttar Pradesh that would benefit although
they have performed poorly. This move aims to signify high-level political
commitment and provide an incentive to accelerate fertility reduction in
states where the pace of decline has been slow.
Corrupt System
The issue of disincentives has been debated in recent months. A proposal had
emanated from a discussion during a National Development Council meeting in
December 1991, following which a committee set up by the Planning Commission
made the recommendation to enforce a two-child norm on MPs and members of
the legislative assembly. This issue was discussed during December 1999 but
the 79th Constitutional Amendment Bill that had been introduced in the Raj ya
Sabha in December 1992 was shot down. This Bill had suggested disqualifying
prospectively anyone with more that two children to be elected to either
House of Parliament. There was little political support for this Bill. The
government should be congratulated for resisting the pressures to include
disincentives in the new policy.
However, several 'promotional and motivational measures’ are to be
implemented at the community and individual level. Unlike in the past, these
incentives are not just for sterilisation but have been linked to poverty,
delayed marriage, ante natal and delivery care, birth registration, the
birth of a girl child and immunisation. Cash incentives and health insurance
for individuals as well as rewards in the form of roads, schools, etc to
panchayats and zilla parishads are proposed. There is, however, serious
concern about how these incentives will, in fact, be implemented through
weak and often corrupt systems.
The new policy is significant in that it has been endorsed at the highest
level which should generate the political will to carry forward a programme
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that is already in place through an unstated policy. It is important to have
a national policy that can provide an overarching framework for state-level
policies and programmes. During the past few years, several states such as
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and
Maharashtra have either put in place or have begun to design state-level
population policies -- which is 'putting the cart before the horse'.
Loss of Credibility
As population numbers remain a concern for India, the policy document has
articulated demographic goals. There is, however, an effort to balance the
twin objectives of reducing fertility and promoting reproductive health. The
document articulates the importance of reproductive health and choice and
the need to promote partnership between government, NGOs and the corporate
sector. Stating the importance of addressing reproductive and sexual health
needs of adolescents is an important first step. But adolescents have
several other needs which should be addressed holistically. There is a
mention of male involvement in terms of enhancing the use of vasectomy and
condoms but a lack of clarity on the need to conceptualise the issue of
promoting men as responsible sexual partners, husbands and fathers to
improve the reproductive health of women and men.
Improving quality of services is implicit in the policy document but should
be central to the agenda. Poor service quality in the public sector is
closely linked to the current lack of accountability within the system.
Recent years have witnessed a growing disenchantment with public sector
services resulting in a loss of credibility of the government’s programme.
How the reproductive and child health programme is implemented will
necessarily depend on how the health system functions. Whether and how
inter-sector coordination is achieved will depend on how effectively
government ministries work together. Clearly, institutional mechanisms must
be put in place to translate the rhetoric of policy into reality.
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ICPRJ) : Pro-poor Issue of the month - Elections in India and the Poor
file:///D|/INFO FROM INTERNET/npp-icprd.htm
Hf 3:3
rlg-PRD"Home-
Home
Mjs^on&.
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Pro-Poor Issue
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About ICPRD
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Feedback
f^-Poor I'ssue'(updatedinonthiy)
pecthOT^Tn^
The ICPRD formulated an agenda for poverty eradication and good governance based on the
insights assimilated from three planned interactions with 16 Members of Parliament, and, 20 Civil
Society leaders working with some four million poor in different parts of the country. The agenda for
poverty eradication and good governance included the following issues as a matter of priority:
i $ -
Gender equity m deveflopmemit, in view of their equal right to development, in view of
the increasing pressures on them to contribute to the family resources, and, in the context
of widespread bias against their equal participation in the socio-economic development
processes,
Ununveirsall EmpSoymemit, in view of the low rate of employment expansion, i.e., 2 percent
with 7 million persons joining the ranks of the unemployed each year), and, in view of the
widespread unemployment and underemployment in the rural sector.
i $ -
Primary Healtlhi, since 135 million people in India lack basic health care facilities,
\ e-
PopuhtionB StabilizatioM, with India expected to have a staggering 1.7 billion people by
2001 surpassing China in this regard.
Safe Driimlknniig Water, since 226 million people in India lack access to safe drinking
water rendering themselves vulnerable to various kinds of diseases and debilities,
Access to Sanitation facilities, since 70 percent of the population lack access to these
services,
l e? -
EnnBiiainicedi credit access to tine poor to enable them to initiate micro-enterprises for
self-employment, and
i
Good governance and public accountability since centralized, bureaucratic and high
cost governance leads to instability and unrest.
-i
It had circulated the agenda among the various political parties with the hope that such priority issues
will find places in their Manifestoes issued at the time of the General Elections in early 1998 or the
elections to some of the State Assemblies in the last quarter of 1998 . It had hoped that the political
processes would demonstrate adequate sensitivity to the minimum basic needs of the more than 320
million poor, among whom two-thirds are women.
The ICPMD initiated a study of the social and economic goals of the various political parties
contained in their Manifestoes on both the occasions to support interactions on what the political
processes promised to the poor people.
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While all parties participating in the political processes, including the elections, are national level
institutions despite the current concentration of some of them in specific geographic regions, the
following analysis has been confined to the Manifestoes formulated by the Bharatnya Jamto Party,
the Inndnann NatfomiaD Congress, and the Janata Dal There is no intention to deliberately exclude the
Manifestoes of the other political parties; the time constraint has forced the organization to undertake
analysis of the Manifestoes of the three political parties. The ICPMD proposes to expand such analysis
in the near future and organize a comprehensive discussion on the issue of poverty eradication and
good governance as reflected in the manifestoes of all the political parties.
The Economic Reforms
Poverty Eradication
Food Security
E Empowerment of Women
E Population Policy
Governance
1 RiGood
ght to Information
$
Panchayat Raj
Non-governmental organizations
E The process of converting promises into reality
Your Contribution
The Economic Reforms
Mostt parties appeared to have accepted the inevitability of the Econuommic Reforms; their focus
lay largely in areas and measures which could protect national interests, and, safeguard the interests of
the poor and those unable to participate in the Open Market processes.
The Jamata Dall, for example, records that ’’India has accepted globalization in principle as part of its
general policy of economic reform.” It adds a note of qualification by stating that they prefer
self-reliance in meeting the country’s basic requirements and looking to global economy ’’only to
supplement our own resources”. The Bharatiya Janata Party believed that the reforms needed to be
"properly strategized from the standpoint of broader national interest and rationally phased in”. It
made a distinction between "procedural reforms" (rectification of laws, etc.) and "policy formulations'
(e.g., policy on insurance, pension funds, etc.).
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Poverty Eradication
A perusal of the three manifestoes reveals that there appears to be a suubstanutiiall amseMsmis oim the
nssime of poverty eradncatDonu m the pernod of what has beenn varnonnsDy characterized as the New
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Ecoimonimnc PoDncy, GDobaDnzatnoim of the Econnonuy, LDberaDnzatfloim, amid the Reforms Process.
I^alth Care in villages
i
Most political parties believed that eradication of poverty could be speeded up through efforts aimed
at emnipDoyiimiemit generation. The Bharatiya Janata Party, for example, preferred to look at poverty
beyond its "calorific value" and include within its ambit "factors that dilute the quality of life such as
illiteracy, lack of sustained employment, malnutrition, lack of shelter, safe drinking water, sanitation
and health care”. It lamented the fact that the issue of employment generation had so far been treated
"as a by-product and not the main goal of development". It called for emphasis on "sectors which offer
large potential for employment, including small-scale, artisan-based and rural industries, infrastructure,
housing (urban and rural), construction, agriculture, wasteland development and forestry, and,
labour-intensive production". The ImidlnM Natsonall Comgircss proposed to continue its earlier practice
of a multi-pronged strategy including building physical and social infrastructure, Employment
Assurance Scheme to provide guaranteed employment in 120 of the poorest districts of the country,
access to credit for working women and women entrepreneurs, etc. It favoured special and immediate
policy attention and investment focus for employment-intensive economic policies. The Janata Dal
favours a policy that would "maximize employment generation through intensification of agriculture
and allied occupations and development of agro-based and other small scale industries and physical
infrastructure in the rural areas on the one hand, and, deploy the industrial infrastructure for
production of mass consumption durables and machines on the other." It thus feels that a close
integration of modern industry, small scale industry and agriculture is critical to the employment
generation process. The Januato DaD prefers to make the right to work a fundamental right by
implementing Employment Guarantee Schemes all over the country.
The other issue which has found common articulation relates to the role of iDie spcciaflized
empDoymcMt pirogiraniniinnics - the IRDP, JRY, NRY, etc. The ImidiM Nationo! CoHngircss favoured a
function-specific view of the anti-poverty programmes: the IRDP to be a programme for creation of
assets and the JRY a programme for wage-employment generation. The Bharatiya Jaoata Party
prefers their redesigning wnth a view to nnucreasiinig thenr coverage asid effectivenesSo
Most political parties have demonstrated sensitivity towards the needs of ttlhie mformal sectoir in terms
of its productivity Deveils, access to tedhumoBogy, credit amid mmarlketiinig.
The Btaratnya Janata Party favoured a national agenda for the BDnagidair sector (the
nini-mcorporated sector) which contributes "nearly 50 percent of national income in manufacturing
sector, a share of 60 percent in the construction sector, a share of more than 75 percent in the
transport sector, nearly 90 percent in the trade sector, more than 80 percent in hotels and restaurants,
and, nearly 100 percent in the business and other services like that of a doctor, lawyer, accountant.
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goldsmith, plumber, porter, mechanic, electrician, tailor, barber, carpenter, driver, priest, cook,
musician, and, in the crafts and professions". It favoured enabling actions by the financial institutions
for this sector, social security for this sector, tax deductions for the traditional commitments of this
sector, and, a national level law to guard against state excesses. The party believed that this sector had
’’the greatest potentiality to attack unemployment, poverty and hunger".
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Food Security
The political parties recognized the need for food security to ensure removal of hunger from all parts
of the country, such removal of hunger has been seen not just in terms of availability of foodgrains,
but in the need for purchasing power with the people to acquire food items on the one hand and the
effectiveness of the Public Distribution System to ensure supplies of essential commodities at the
desired time periods. The ISHnaurattnysi Jaimata Painty, for example, favoured a recasting of the
agricultural policy to increase food production.
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|Empowerment of Women
All the political parties favoured removal of discrimination against women, establishment of gender
equity through creation of new mechanisms for social, political and economic advancement of women,
and, reserved representation of women in the national policy-making processes. The political parties
favoured property rights for women, equal opportunities in matter of employment and promotion,
equal wages for equal work both in organized and unorganized sectors, women’s partnership in the
management of community assets and properties in rural areas, expanded access to micro-credit,
area-specific and job-specific self-employment schemes, stricter laws to deal with molestation, rape
and dowry, campaign against child prostitution, etc.
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5 ® -
Population Policy
The political processes have recognized the risks involved in having large population levels in the
country. The Manifestoes clearly outline the fears of a billion level of population by the year 2001 and
articulate resolve to check the growth rate through increased awareness, improved access to family
planning services, using the development contraceptive, etc.
The BBaairattnya JJamiatta Painty proposes to formulate a Natnonal PopuBatnonn Poflky in the framework
of the reports of the MattnounaD Developmeiralt Counudll and of the Swanunnimattlhianii Commttee. Other
measures include incentives to those who adopt the two-child norm (including ’’high incentives” to
those who opt for the ”single=child" norm), reduction in infant mortality rates, promotion of women’s
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education, employment and empowerment, introduction of family planning methods which allow
women greater freedom of choice without imperiling their health, and, enhance the age of marriage.
The Inudnaim NatioBiafl Conugiress is concerned at the addition of 1.5 crore people to the country’s
population each year. It favours a ’’more determined effort in north India and in the 150-odd districts
where fertility declines are taking place at a very slow pace.
••j^ck'ta-index-
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Good Governance
The political parties recognize the need for good governance. Most parties favour creation of small
states, introduction of regional development councils in remote and difficult terrains, administrative
reforms to facilitate just, progressive and participatory administration and implementation of
socio-economic development programmes. Jammu & Kashmir, and, the North-eastern states have
received special attention from most political parties; the parties favour a development-oriented
approach to the problems of insurgency and militancy on the one hand and support to mutual
understanding and negotiations. The development programmes include forestry, tourism, handicrafts
and other employment-oriented industries for the north-eastern region.
However, there are differences in perception as well. The BtairMDyai Jaimato Painty, for example,
favours Constitutional Reforms through a Commission to comprehensively review the Constitution of
India.
fecfctolndex
Right to Information
Transparency in and accountability of the functioning of the governmental processes has also attracted
attention of the political parties.
The Bhairatnya Jamia Painty, for example, spoke of three specific measures aimed at this end: these
included (i) enhancing public access to information to the maximum extent possible, (ii) reviewing
laws and regulations concerning accountability, and, (iii) introducing social audit of development
programmes, especially in rural areas. The Imidnaini NatiofluaB Conugiress favours A Freedom of
Information Act to end the culture of secrecy and to ensure openness in administration.
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Panchayat Raj
The irevDvaD of the innstituations of HocaD seDf-goveraaimce with the 73ird anud 74tOn Ameimdmeinits to
the Comisititatnonii of India has been hailed by most political parties as a step to concretize
decentralization of planning and development management. However, parties appear to vary in their
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approach to issues aimed at strengthening such institutions.
The Bharatiya Jamiata Party, for example, favours grant of greater autonomy to such institutions by
making them financially self-reliant. The Indnami NatnonnaD Congiress accords seminal significance to
the Panchayat Raj Institutions by viewing these as "the first tier of democracy", as against the popular
view of such institutions being the third tier of democracy. It attaches considerable significance to the
mass base of democracy facilitated by emergence of nearly 30 lakh people’s representatives at the
grassroots, 10 lakh of whom are women, participating in governance processes. It is a bit more
concrete in its approach to strengthening of the local bodies; it favours transfer of all rural
development funds (currently at around Rs. 8,000 crores per year) directly to Zilla Parishads and other
Panchayat institutions. Apart from providing funds to the Nagarpalikas, it favours development of
municipal bond market as a way of raising resources. The Janata BM favours a focus on the Gram
Sabhas and City/Town Ward Assemblies in the planning process and its implementation.
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Non-goveramental organizations
Most political parties favour NGO roles in "social mobilization" and in the "implementation of all
development programmes". The Knudliaini National Coimgiress favours review of FCRA to reduce
control over development-oriented and professionally-managed NGOs.
d^ckrtoTiidex"*
The Process of Converting Promises into Reality
The substantive agreement on broader contours of poverty eradication and good governance leads one
to believe in two possibilities; one, the political parties really mean business about these two issues,
and, two, most such statements are holy sentiments that are routinely articulated and rarely pursued by
vigorously by the political processes. We believe that the first option represents the reality.
Where do we go from here. Should we initiate social audit sector-by-sector and build pressure in
favour of pro-poor policy making and programme implementation? Should we create situations by
which more parliamentary time is devoted to these two issues? Should we plead for the weakest link
in the current political beliefs: the under-nourished Panchayati Raj institutions, particularly at the level
of the Gram Sabha and the Panchayat Samitis? We nnnvite yoanir suggesthims.
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Your Contribution and Suggestions
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ICPQp : Pro-poor Issue of the month - Elections in India and the Poor
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Your Name
Your E-mail address
Topic of Interest
Your Contribution / Suggestions concerning
the abovementioned topic
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7 of?
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HP3;4
Maharashtra Population Policy
Subject: Maharashtra Population Policy
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 23:10:42 +0530
From: ’’DOLKE” <aaasn@nagpur. dot.net. in>
To: ’’Medico Friend Circle" <mfriendcircle@netscape.net>
Dear friends,
Here comes the Maharashtra Population Policy Statement. It's heartening to
learn that the govt, has adopted an interdisciplinary approach. Let’s become
part of it (NGO participation is ensured in several committees) and make it
meaningful.
Arun
Arun DoIke
"Sakshi", 18/7 Ujwal Nagar, Wardha Road, Nagpur - 440 025 India
Tel. : (91-712) 260709
Email : aaasnQnagpur.dot.net.in
Medico Friend Circle (MFC) - eForum
http://www.geocities.com/mfcircle/
Send email at mfriendcircle@netscape.net to unsubscribe MFC eForum.
MAHARASHTRA POPULATION POLICY STATEMENT
VISION 2010
I. NEED FOR POPULATION POLICY
The State of Maharashtra, located in the western part of India, belongs to
the category of relatively better-developed states of the country, whether
viewed from the point of view of literacy, urbanization or various other
socio-economic indicators. A.lthough the state has done well in the area of
family welfare, it is characterised by uneven development amongst its
regions. There exists vast regional discrepancy with regards to
implementation of the population programme. Further, despite overall
socio-economic improvement the progress in vital indicators has not been
very impressive. For eg although Maharashtra was at par with Tamil Nadu in
terms of Crude Birth Rate (28.5 and 28.8 respectively) and TFR (3.6 and 3.4
respectively) in 1988. It was much behind Tamil Nadu in these indicators in
1993. The current level of TFR in Maharashtra is 2.7 per women, which is
much higher than the replacement level fertility of 2.1 required to initiate
the process of population stabilization. The Technical Group on Population
Projections constituted by the Planning Commission, Government of India
projected that Maharashtra would be able to achieve replacement level
fertility only by 2008 - 2009. This does not mean that Maharastrians are
either not aware of the programme or are not willing to accept it. On the
contrary, there is universal awareness regarding Family Planning amongst
eligible couples and there is an unmet need for family planning services in
the state (NFHS, 1992-1993) even amongst the poor. This reveals that people •_
of the state do not want more children but are not using family limitation
practices. If the existing unmet need is converted into demand and unwanted
pregnancies are avoided, it would be possible to achieve TFR 2.1 in the year
2004.
Further, following the mandate of ICPD, Maharashtra wants to change the
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Maharashtra Population Policy
focus of the Population Programme from a population control'taraget oriented
of reducing numbers to developing programmes designed to address
the reproductive health needs of couples, especially women. With this in
mind, the state decided to draft a population policy - Vision 2010.
II. MISSION
The mission of the Population Policy is to achieve Population Stabilisation
at the earliest by improving the quality of life of its people through
reducing the glaring regional im -balances in socio-demographic
characteristics and providing good quality need based services to couples
especially women.
III. OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the Population Policy is to reach a TER of 2.1 by
2004. For this, contraceptive prevalence must increase from the present rate
of 61(NHFMO)1998 percent to around 65 percent by 2004.With focus on young
couples and spacing methods. Steps would also need to be taken to ensure
that the Infant Mortality rate is reduced from the current level of 49 to
around 30 by 2004. The maternal mortality rate would also need to decline
from the current level of 320 per 100000 live births to around 100 by 2004.
The Population policy also aims to promote gender equality in all spheres of
life including family and community life. It would aim to improve the low
status given to the girl child and safe guard her rights. The policy would
also attempt to empower women to'become equal partners in the development
process by enhancing their role in decision making and improving their
status.
IV. BROAD STRATEGIES
The Population policy can be implemented through a set of broad strategies,
which would provide guidelines for designing of programmes. Maharashtras’
Population Policy envisages two broad sets of Strategic Initiatives. One,
Immediate Strategic initiatives, which would be required to achieve
replacement level fertility by 2004. These would include: Effective
Management of the family welfare programme; Involvement of key stake holders
like the Panchayati Raj Institution, Cooperatives, NGO’s, Corporate Sector
in programme implementation and Inter - Departmental cooperation. The other
set of initiatives would be the long term strategies required to stabilize
population growth and would include broad developmental goals like enhancing
the status of women and bringing them into the main stream. The specific
strategic initiatives that will guide and direct implementation of
Maharashtras ’ population policy are:
A. Improving Management Of the Population Programmes to provide need based
services.
(i)
Decentralising planning and programme Implementation
In order to promote population policies in the context of social equity and
development an Expert Group on Population policy set up by the Government of
India in 1993 suggested a radical shift in planning process by adopting the
principle "think, plan and act locally and support nationally". Maharashtras
policy endorses this. This has been facilitated by the 73rd and 74th
Const!tutional Amendments, which have made the establishment of elected
Panchayats and Nagarpalikas mandatory. The planning tool suggested for the
grass root level by the expert group on population policy is a Socio
Demographic Charter for use at the village , town or city level like the
2 of 5
Maharashtra Population Policy
five year plan at the central and state level. Each Panchayat and
Nagrapalika will be encouraged to prepare a socio- demographic charter for
their village/town with the twin goal of priority setting in meeting the
unmet minimum needs of the local population and achieving harmony with
nature by promoting the conservation and sustainable utilisation of natural
resources. The Socio- Demographic Charter would give scope to the elected
members of local governments to prioritise their unmet minimum needs and
develop a feasible strategy for meeting them within a stipulated time frame.
Integrating Reproductive and Child Health Services in the Population
(ii)
Programme
The goal of the Family Planning Programme will be redefined to provide
comprehensive reproductive health services to enable couples meet their
reproductive health goals by determining freely and responsibly the number
and spacing of their children. The programme will give serious consideration
to the following reproductive health elements:
- Strengthening babe motherhood services.
Provision of safe abortion services,
- Assurance that Contraceptive Services are delivered safely,
- Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of RTIs and STDs,
- Services to address sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents,
- Strengthening child health services especially neo- natal care,
- Encouraging men to take responsibility for family planning and
reproductive health, and
- Providing women-centred gender sensitive services
- Increasing age at marriage
- Provision of care for the elderly
(iii) Improving quality of care and increasing client focus
Reproductive health programmes will be designed to address client’s needs.
An important implication for their implementation would be to provide
quality of services from the users perspectives. This will help to bridge
the gap between providers and users of services. The programmes will be
redesigned to address the different needs of men, women and adolescents in
different stages of their life cycle.
By providing good quality, need based services it is hoped that 14 percent
currently married women in Maharashtra who have an unmet need for Family
Planning Services can be approached to adopt contraception enabling
Maharashtra to attain TFR 2.1 by 2004.
(iv) Reducing Regional Imbalances
Maharashtra has the highest percentage of urban population. A large
proportion of this population lives in slums, which have inhospitable and
unhygienic living conditions due to poor sanitation facilities,
unavailability of clean drinking water and poor health care services.
Similarly, a fairly large percentage of Maharashtras Population is tribal.
Tribal populations suffer from high infant, child and maternal morbidity and
mortality and hence need special attention. Smaller villages having less
than 500 Popula'tion also need to be given focused attention.The policy would
design specific programmes and implementation strategies to meet the needs
of disadvantaged groups like urban areas, especially slum dwellers, tribals
and smaller villages thus reducing the striking regional imbalances in
socio-economic development and demographic indicators.
(v) Training of service providers
3 of 5
< /
Maharashtra Population Policy
Service providers will be trained to enhance their counseling and technical
skills to improve quality of services provided. Service providers will also
be trained to be sensitive to gender specific needs and issues to help cater
to women’s specific needs of reproductive health.
B.
Involvement of Panchayats, NGOs and the Private Sectors
The involvement of Panchayats in the population programme can greatly help
to introduce location specific concerns and make the programme a people’s
movement. The involvement of panchayats, especially women members will
increase attention towards the specific problems of women and children who
represent the sections most vulnerable to ill health and disease. Panchayat
members can aim to improve women health by changing social attitudes and
behavior practices towards health of women and girl children through
continuous dialogue, information and education.
,The Maharashtra Government, hence, aims to involve Panchayati Raj
institutions as partners in implementing the population programme. The
government will also actively encourage the involvement of private
institutions in its efforts to expand the reach of reproductive health
services. The involvement of voluntary agencies will contribute in creating
demand for high quality services and stimulating community involvement in
providing these services.
If Population Stablisation efforts are to be sustained in the long run they
need to be owned, planned and implemented by local communities using
resources mobilized from within the community. Hence community participation
will be a guiding principle for Maharashtra Population Programme.
C. Inter-departmental Coordination
In the past health and development programmes have been vertically
administered, there is hence an urgent need to horizontally integrate these
programmes. This is because inter- sectoral linkages are needed for
coordinating and promoting a synergy of efforts to ensure programme
effectiveness as well as for minimizing duplication and ensuring effective
utilization of resources. A major thrust of Maharashtras policy is to
broaden the population agenda by promoting inter-sectoral coordination and
involvement of several Government Ministers, especially those responsible
for Women and Child Development, Youth Affairs, Panchayats, Education,
e.t.c. At the users level also, convergence of services is required because
most often services are provided by the same provider at the peripheral
level.
Thus, to achieve its vision of 2010, Maharashtras population Policy has
recognized the close linkages between social and health issues in population
control and adopted a synergistic approach based on needs of the people
especially women.
Integrating Population and Development efforts for Population
D.
Stabilisation
The long term strategic initative required to stabilize Maharashtras
population are the broad development goals like enhancing women’s status by
investing in their education, creating a climate in which women can exercise
their rights freely. Incorporating gender concern in all developmental
programmes, promoting progressive social practices to help women move away
from their stereotype roles and bringing to the mainstream, women’s issues
in development by identifying their limitation and needs and integrating
them into the planning process. This would be done by designing special
4.of5
Maharashtra Population Policy
schemes to provide gainful employment to women and involve them in
decision-making roles.
V.
IMPLEMENTING MECHANISM
For effective Implementation of the Population Policy, an appropriate
structural mechanism needs to be put in place. This Mechanism will not only
help to ensure Political and Social Commitment but also result in support
from bureaucrats and administrators who are actually responsible for
programme implementation. A strong commitment from bureaucrats and
politicians will help to work in coordination with other development
departments. In Maharashtra the following institutional mechanism has been
suggested .
A.
State Population and Development Commission.
This will be the apex body responsible for reviewing and adopting policies
consistent with the states socio- economic and demographic goals. The
commission will be headed by the Chief Minister of the state who would be
the Chairperson of the Commission . The Chief Secretary to the Government of
Maharashtra will be the Member secretary of the Commission. The Commission
will have as its members;
(i) Ministers of Department, of Education, Health and Family Welfare,
Medical Education, Women and Child Development, Finance, Rural Development,
Urban Development, Youth affairs. Environment, Tribal Welfare and Planning,
Public Works department and Social welfare department.
(ii) Leaders of Opposition Parties
(iii) Member from a leading NGO
(iv) Representative from a womens Organisation
Representative from the Corporate sector and
(v)
(vi) Population Scientist
(vii) Two eminent personalities
B. Steering Committee on Population
The steering committee will coordinate and monitor implementation of the
Population Policy under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary. It will be
responsible for the initiation of innovative programmes and schemes for
population control, enhancing the status of women and reaching out to the
unreached. Thus, this committee will help to achieve the objectives of the
policy by working in close coordination with partner departments. The
Secretary Family Welfare will be the member secretary of the committee.
The committee will have as its member's secretaries of relevant development
departments, representative from an NGOs community/religious leader and a
renowned demographer
C. District Population and Development Committee
In order to horizontally integrate the programme and achieve convergence at
the district level and below the District Population and Development
Committee would be established under the chairmanship of the Collector, It
would have as its members, heads of all development departments at the
district level, representative of NGOs and other prominent personalities.
The CEO will be the member secretary of the committee. The Committee will
oversea implementation of the population Programme at the district level and
below.
5 of 5
^f3-5
National Population
Policy, 2000
Swaminathan to Shanmugham
As the country gets ready for the 2001 Census of India, the
prospect of confronting the new population figures which will
reflect the differential growth rates ofpopulation among the states
has prompted the Vajpayee government to present, at last, the new
population policy.
Ashish Bose
T ndia’s quest forpopulation stabilisation
I began in 1951, with the formulation
JLof the First Five-Year Plan. After five
decades of planning, including a centrallysponsored family planning (remained as
family welfare) programme, population
stabilisation still remains an elusive goal.
The National Population Policy announced
by N T Shanmugham, union minister of
state for health and family welfare on
February 15, 2000, states that the long
term objective of the policy is “to achieve
a stable population by 2045, at a level
consistent with the requirements of sustain
able economic growth, social develop
ment and environmental protection”. In
the long run, population stabilisation will
be the culmination of about 100 years’
efforts of a highly bureaucratic programme
not withstanding periodic pronouncements
by successive governments about the vital
need for making family planning “a
people’s movement”.
The fundamental question is: can the
government generate a people’s move
ment? It should be obvious that it cannot.
International donor agencies, disillusioned
by the largely unsuccessful implementa
tion of India’s family planning programme
are enchanted by NGOs but India’s recent
experience shows that most of the NGOs
are elitist organisations, far removed from
the people: they are basically DONGOs
- donor-driven NGOs who will collapse
as soon as the foreign money is with
drawn, and GONGOs - government-driven
NGOs which are captured by bureaucrats
or their wives and quite often by the wives
of ministers. These organisations too are
far removed from the masses. What should
we do then ? If neither the government
1058
or influence the prime minister. In this
process of examining the Swaminathan
Committee report, the government of India
wasted six years, during which period
India’s population increased by over 100
million.
It is indeed a dramatic situation: We
want almost 100 years (starting from 1951)
to stabilise the population and we added
100 million people while the bureaucrats
and ministers were engaged in ‘examin
ing’ Swaminathan Committee report. What
about the price tags? The budgetary allo
cation for family planning in the First
Five-Year Plan (1951-56) was Rs 65 lakh.
In the budget for 2000-2001 just presented
to parliament, the budget for family welfare
is Rs 3,520 crore (the department of family
welfare is demanding a doubling of this
figure to implement the new Population
Policy). In short, the expenditure on fam
ily planning /welfare has risen at a much
faster rate than the growth of population.
Shanmugham provides for a whole range
of monetary incentives which are called
“promotional and motivational measures”
in the new policy document. Following
are a few examples:
nor the NGOs can set us on the path of
population stabilisation, should we look
to other mechanisms like the one sug
gested by an Expert Group on Population
Policy headed by M S Swaminathan, the
famous agricultural scientist and environ
mentalist who, in the report submitted to
the prime minister in May 1994. had
recommended an independent Population
and Social Development Commission
wHch “will function in a manner similar
Reward panchayats and zila parishads for
to other commission of Government with
exemplary performance in universalising
executive powers such as the Atomic
the small family norm, achieving reductions
Energy and Space Commissions”.1 The
in infant mortality and promoting literacy
report also suggested that the proposed
with completion of primary'schooling.
commission “will be headed by a full-time
Department ofWomen and Child Develop
chairperson who will be an eminent social
ment awards a cash incentive of Rs 500
worker or a professional respected in the
at the birth of a girl child, to promote care
and survival of the girl child, up to two
country for commitment to the cause of
children.
population stabilisation and social develop
; Department of Rural_pev_elopment has a
ment”. It further stated that the proposed
Maternity Benefit Scheme to award a cash
commission “will take over many of the
incentive of Rs 500 to mothers who have
responsibilities now borne by the Depart
theirjirst child after iVyears-OTage^LuR
ment of Family Welfare of the Govern
'IcQhe^birth of thftse.CQnd_GhiJd. In future,
ment of India. The funds available...will
disbursement of this cash award will be
be credited to a Population and Social
linked to compliance with ante-natal check
Development Fund.”
up, institutional delivery by trained birth
^fhe Swaminathan Committee’s report
attendant, registration of birth and BCG
has remained in cold storage since 1994.
immunisation.
Successive prime ministers asked the top ej Couples below the poverty line, who
undergo sterilisation with not more than
bureaucrats to examine this report but they
two living children, will be eligible for a
were dead against dilution of the bureau
health insurance plan, involving hospital
cracy inherent in the recommendations.
insurance not exceeding Rs 5,000/- (for
They were willing to accept other recom
the children and the couple),~besides a
mendations of the report like endorsing
personal accident insuran.ce_cpver for the
the “national socio-demographic goals for
. spouse who undergoes sterilisation.
the year 2010” but firmly rejected any
Couples below the poverty line will be
effort to restructure the department of
rewarded if they marry after the legal age
family welfare or give greater fmancial
of marriage, register the marriage, have
autonomy to states to run the 100 per cent
their first child after the mother reaches
centrally-sponsored programme. Suc
the age of 21, accept the small family norm
cessive health and family welfarejninis^
aridadopfa terminal method after the birth
ters were too weak to assert themselves
of the second child.
Economic and Political Weekly
March 25, 2000
i
A revolving fund for income generating
activitiesby ^nllagelevei self-help groups,
'who provide community level health care
services.
considerable controversy. It may be re
called that Swaminathan Committee had
recommended:
dorsed at least one recommendation of the
Swaminathan Committee but extended the
date to 2026 instead of 2011 for the freeze.
The necessary constitutional amendment
will have to be passed by parliament. If
this is not done, Uttar Pradesh will be
rewarded with 100 seats in Lok Sabha
(instead of 85) and all the southern states
will lose a number of seats, reducing their
political leverage. The Vajpayee govern
ment’s concern for this political safety net
is understandable. Leaving aside the well
being of our politicians, one jnayjisk:
What about the economic well-being of
one
21 billion peopleTSZJ
As of now, the seats in parliament and
It is worth recalling that the S waminathan
legislatures are frozen till the year 2001.
Committee had clearly stated that “incenConsistent with the goals of this policy,
it is proposed to extend the period of
tives in cash or kind given by the central
freezing of seats up to the year 2011.
and state governments for the acceptors of
contraception as well as to motivators and
As the country gets ready for the 2001
service providers will be discontinued”.
Census of India, the prospect of taking
During the deliberations of S waminathan note of the new population figures which
Committee, I took the view that foreign will reflect the differential growth rates of
‘kubuddhi’ (bad advice) to which some of population among states, and in particular,
our bureaucrats and politicians succumbed the sharp contrast in the growth rates of
was responsible for injecting cash incen Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and
tives in our health delivery system which Karnataka in comparison with the Uttar
resuligdjn_wid^read corruption. My ’Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Note
definition of corruption included cooking Rajasthan (what we call the North-South
1 All quotations from Swaminathan Committee
ofdata for showing ‘progress’ of the family Demographic Divide) assumes very great
report are from the full reproduction of the
report in the following publication: Ashish Bose,
planning programme. I believe that social urgency. The Vajpayee government has
India’s Population Policy: Changing
transformation cannot be brought about by suddenly woken up and announced a new
Paradigm, BR Publishing Corporation, New
ah advertising approach backed by increas National Population Policy and has enDelhi, 1996, pp 197-228.
ing casKTlows, unless _we tackle funda
mental problems affecting our economy
and society. My diagnosis of India’s popu
lation problem focusing on four key states
of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and
Uttar Pradesh (my acronym BIMARU has
now gained wide acceptability) where
economic, social and political backward
ness have perpetuated their demographic
misery, remains valid and every exercise The series of crippling cyber attacks in the second week of
in statistics done by India’s decimal-point
February not only forced the closure of a number of important web
demographers only strengthens my thesis
which I conveyed to the then prime min sites for hours, but also made a serious dent in customer
ister in £985 through my acronym confidence in internet based e-commerce. Can a voluntary,
BIMARU (in the Hindi dialect of eastern industry-led programme keep the internet open, free and secure
Uttar Pradesh it means ‘sick’).
without help from governments round the world?
From Swaminathan to Shanmugham is
\
a long story of political procrastination. In
C SATAPATHY
incapacitated followed by almost simulta
fairness to tbe bureaucrats, I must say that
neous attacks on Amazon, the biggest
the new population policy does reflect a
he second week of February saw\ e-commerce web site, and CNN.com, the
sincere attempt by the senior bureaucrats
series of crippling cyber attacks on , news
service web site. On Wednesday,
the
newsserviceweosue.un
weonesoay,me
to spell out a policy within the four walls
a number ofprominent internet com \attacks shifted first to ZDNet, a media web
of bureaucracy. The department of family
panies. On Monday, February 7, the Inter site that provided high technology news,
welfare is headed by a highly competent
national Herald Tribune carried an article and then to E*Trade, an online brokerage
bureaucrat who conducted successfully the
titled ‘Storing Secrets on a Home Com web site. There was possibly an attack for
world’s second largest census in 1991.
puter Is Like Telling Hackers, Help Your a short time on another brokerage site
One may ask: What is the role of politi
self and side by side another article titled Datek Online, but the site has denied that
cians? The National Population Policy,
‘Free Services on Web Can Assess and it was attacked. Finally on Wednesday
2000 states:
Fortify Computer’s Defences’. Ironically, night, web portal Excite@Home became
The 42nd Constitutional Amendment has
the same day Yahoo, the busiest web site the ninth victim of such attacks.
frozen the number of representatives in the of the world and also one of the most
By far these attacks were the most se
Lok Sabha (on the basis of 1971 Census sophisticated and well-secured, was shut rious in the history of internet which not
levels), and is valid until 2001. In order down for about three hours because of only literally closed down these important
to enable state governments to fearlessly cyber attacks. On Tuesday there was a
web sites for hours but also made a serious
pursue the agenda population stabilisation,
similar attack on Buy.com, an e-commerce dent in customer confidence in the internetthis freeze must be extended until 2026.
site that sells computers and electronic based e-commerce itself. If these sophis
It was this clause which attracted the products online. The same afternoon, eBay, ticated web sites could not wkrd off cyber
attention of the media and has aroused a leading online auction web site, was attacks on themselves, how are they going
pact of Cyber Vandalism
on the Internet
Economic and Political Weekly
March 25, 2000
1059
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Feb 17 2000 13:39 1ST
NEW DELIHID, Feb 17 JAFF) - Dondoai ©n
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on ots omipOementatoono
"There will be no coercion, no force," A.R. Nanda, the head of the government's
family welfare department, told reporters.
"The policy will be based on informed consent and democratic principles,"
Nanda said.
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The new programme, which was cleared by the cabinet on Tuesday, offers
incentives to couples having no more than two children.
The world’s second most populous country with nearly one billion people, India
has had some disastrous experiments with family planning.
A sterilization programme launched in the late seventies was widely abused by
doctors who received financial incentives to perform vasectomies and often
forced men to have the surgery.
Nanda said the government’s medium term objective was to bring down the
total fertility rate to two children per couple by 2010 and thereby achieve a
stable population by 2045.
"Within four to six years if at least 30 percent of the contraceptive needs are met
then total fertility rate can be brought down to 2.1 by 2010," Nanda said.
Since independence in 1.947, the fertility rate has been cut from six births per
woman of child-bearing age to 3.5.
The new population policy will be placed before parliament when it starts its
budget session next week.
"There has been a paradigm shift in the policy. There will be an integerated
service delivery system by way of self-help groups which will cover all the
villages," Nanda said.
The government will need 60 billion rupees (1.4 billion dollars) in the next two
years to implement the policy.
"Earlier the funds used to be dispersed by the federal governments and there
were bureaucratic hurdles. Butthat will change now," Nanda said, adding that
the government planned to give more attention to demographically backward
states such as northern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Haryana.
to rule in India-Pakistan dispute
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India’s population grows by 30 a minute, 1,815 per hour, 1.3 million per month
and 15.7 million a year -- close to the population of Australia.
If Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 156.9 million people, were an independent
nation, it would be the world’s fifth most populous.
6/22/00 5:57 PM
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India was the first country in the developing world to initiate state-sponsored
family planning in 1952 and, on the surface, the official figures suggest some
measure of success.
But a declining death rate has seen India's population grow by two percent
annually since the 1960s. As a result, the population has almost tripled from the
independence-era figure of 350 million.
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6/22/00 5:57 PM
.» kUllviv uvlu lyViydvdj
Subject: An article from Debabar Banerji
Date: Tue; 2 May 2000 10:08:36 +0530
From: "nlipp" <nlipp@boi.net.in>
To: “thelma narayan” <sochara@vsnl.com>
May 2 2000
Dr Thelma Narayan, Coordinator, CHC,
Dear Dr Thelma
Here is something which I thought might interest your team. J will welcome your comments.
Regards, Sincerely, D Bancrji.
... ............. .........
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5/3/00 9:49 AM
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March 12 2000
THE VOICELESS AND THE NEW POPULATION POLICY
Debabar Banerji
Professor Emeritus Jawaharlal Nehru University
and
Convenor, Nucleus for Health Policies and Programmes,
B-43 Panchsheel Enclave, New Delhi 110017.
Tel:649 0851 & 649 8538 E-Mail: nhppgbol.net.in
Where is the voice of the voiceless in the newly devised National Population Policy (NPP)? As one who
has found himself on the other side of the barricade after very carefully analysing the making of the
infamous Family Planning Programme of India since its inception in the early 1950s, this sums up my
comments on the NPP. The bureaucrats, the technocrats and the political leadership and the ubiquitous
foreign consultants, seem to live in a make believe world of their own, deciding what is good for the
voiceless. Considering the class structure in the country, this should not be very surprising. The 'fight'
against the rising population is a fight between the 'classes’ and the 'masses’.
It reminds me of a very pertinent incident that took place some forty years ago. A family planning
worker was 'motivating' a villager by telling him 'Baba, nasbandt karwale (Baba, get your self
vasectomised). He asked Kyon, babuji? (Why sir?). The reply was : Abadi barhne se sara desh doob
jayega (the country will be drawn by population growth). Baba observed Woh to acchhi bat hogi,
Babuji. Abhi to hum he doobe hue hain; turn bhi hamare saath doobo! (That will be good a idea, sir. Till
now only we were drowned; now you also drown with us!). This has been the voice of the voiceless. But
the powers that be was not prepared to listen to such unpleasant comments. Another familiar observation
to justify the sterilisation programme was to say ’that family planning must be implemented vigorously,
even ruthlessly, if so warranted, because otherwise the fruits of development will be eaten away by the
rising numbers'. These people never paused to ask the simple question: who had been eating the fruits of
development during the past fifty years? A tempting inference from this unease of the ruling class will for
the voiceless to use population growth as the ultimate weapon to wrest their legitimate rights on their
share of fruits of development from their oppressors.
This relation of population and a just social order was recognised by progressive thinkers during the
freedom struggle, like Gyanchand, as early as in 1937. In the preface to his book, India's Teeming
Millions he observed:
Population problem is important and has to be dealt with, but only a neo-Malthusian propagandist
without an understanding of its essentials can maintain that for its solution all that is necessary is to
popularise birth-control on a national scale. The population problem, I have made it fairly clear in this
book, is the problem of remaking of a derelict people. Its solution depends upon a complete and radical
1
reconstruction required by the needs of the situation and cannot be carried out without making control of
population an integral part of the whole scheme of construction.'
I
reconstraction required by the needs of the situation and cannot be carried out ■without making control of
population an integral part of the whole scheme of construction.'
The contrast between the thinkers of our freedom movement and what was implemented by those who
took over political power after India gained Independence could not have been sharper. Egged on by
consultants from organisations like the Ford Foundation, the new political rulers took the role of' neoMalthusian propagandists'^ was feared by Gyanchand in 1937. The rulers of independent India got
frightened by the spectre of rapid population growth. Their class compulsions came in the way of what
Gyanchand had called 'making population control as an integral part of the whole scheme of
construction'. As they had been reluctant from the very beginning to deny the masses their due as
enshrined in the Constitution,
they apparently came to the conclusion the masses should be made to accept a birth control drive
without undertaking the associated task of programme that the task of'remaking a derelict people.'
Unfortunately and grimly ironically for the derelict people, who had no voice in shaping their destiny, the
rulers almost deterministic ally followed the footsteps of the British colonialists. The new rulers too
concluded that such a (hatchet) job of ‘ sterilizing people on a large scale be better handed over to the
bureaucrats, who carried a long British 'heritage of imposing the will of the rulers on the hapless masses.
Coercion of the people in various form became a routine in the implementation family planning in
democratic India: this did not come in the way of the rulers and of their mentors from abroad in
passionately swearing by their undying commitment to upholding human rights of all the people. Masses
of people of independent India became the 'target' for sterilisation of its 'own' government. It took a
more menacing form for the voiceless when, in 1967, the ministry of health was bifurcated into
departments of'health' and 'family planning' and the latter department was handed over to bureaucrats to
enable them to apply their well tested methods of getting the 'results'.
Ignoring the crying need for allocations for fulfilling such constitutional directions to the state to as to
provide free and compulsory education to all the children between ages 6-14, protect and promote
health nutrition of all the people' and ensure provision of employment, the Government of India and the
Planning Commission assigned over-riding priority to this bureaucrat-driven, target oriented sterilisation
drive. The allocations for family planning shot up from a mere Rs 6.5million in the First Plan to a
colossal Rs 65,000million in the Eighth Plan - a 10,000 fold increase.
However, despite all the efforts, the population of the country grew relentlessly, census figures show that
it grew by 109million during the sixties; it went up by 137million in the seventies; and it shot up by
160million in the eighties. The population of the country rose from 351 million in 1951 to one billion at
present. A cynic can exclaim: greater the allocation, greater is the population growth! The expected
growth during the nineties is also to be around 160million. This is despite taking recourse to mass
sterilisation camps, use of more overt physical force to vasectomise more than nine million people during
the Emergency period of 19775-76 and adopting the abhorrent tactic of denying people access to
services at government health institutions, if they could not show evidence of sterilisation. The excesses
committed to impose sterilisation of people during the Emergency period will go down as the darkest
chapter in the history of independent India; the overthrow of the perpetrators of such deeds by the long
suppressed, predominantly illiterate voiceless people will down as a golden chapter in that history.
In addition to waste of huge quantities of resources of a desperately poor country like India, the
preoccupation with the implementation of the birth-control drive and consequent neglect of other health
services has had a devastating impact on health services system, particularly the rural health services in
India. The family planning programme ’hijacked' the health sendees. The result was that neither of them
could yield the results for which they were planned. As a consequence of the depredations caused by the
family planning for over three decades and a half, the state of health sendees has touched such a low
point that even injection of huge amounts of resources to atone for its long neglect will not be found
adequate. Thenaialady has coiToded“the' vitais “of-the- heaitir^enTOnst^stem^Te- entire -system ^f
2
organisation and management is in a shambles. Family planning stands out as the darkest and the biggest ||
blot in the landscape of the health services development of the country.
The family planning programme thus inflicted three major blows to the country: it repeatedly failed to
yield the expected results; a huge quantity of resources was wasted in its implementation; and, it dealt a
devastating blow on the health service system of the country from which it will take a long time to
recover. These ill-effects were pointed out to the political leadership, the programme authorities, the
academics, particularly demographers and planners and the personnel from involved foreign agencies by
those who chose to be 'on the other side of the barricade'. The political leadership, including those who
called them Marxists in the Parliament as well in the states ruled by them, looked the other way, when
the plight of the voiceless was pointedly brought to their attention.
Expectedly, the bureaucrats, who in any way were mere 'birds of passage' in the department of family
planning, were never held accountable for their wrong decisions. As the bureaucrats were mostly novices
in this complex ar ea before they were assigned the top post in the department of family planning and the
average period of their stay in the department was well below two years, it is unreasonable to have any
expectations from them. But, then why were they given so much of authority by their political mentors?
The ultimate accountability is thus basically a political one - that of the minister incharge, the cabinet, the
National Council for Health and Family Planning, the National Development Council, the Planning
Commission and finally, of course, of the Parliament. How far have they fulfilled their obligations?
In discussing the process of formulation of a national population policy for a vast and a complex country
like India, it is necessary to take into account at least three major considerations:
i. Policy formulation is a highly complex academic exercise. First and foremost it is a political process,
which sets the trend for the other processes involved in the exercise. Inputs from cultural anthropolog}-,
sociology, social psychology, demography, contraceptive and health technology, public administration
(including management), are someXhese processes. Relevant data from these different disciplines then
had to be processed together to find the best policy frame that fits into the political intent.
ii. It should be logical that before one sets out to give shape to a 'new' policy, one gets together the
earlier efforts made in this context, analyse at least the major ones among them and, if these ideas do not
find place in the new policy document, give justification for not agreeing with them.
iii. A new policy must be based on a thorough analysis of the past experience in India and elsewhere, if
that is found relevant to explain the recommendations.
It is futile even to look for a semblance of effort made by the department to take into account the issues
referred to in the foregoing three sets of considerations. One feels much more than cynical - it causes a
deep rooted sadness - to go through the document as presented in the January-February, 2000 issue of
the Health for the Millions. It is a supreme irony that this very number contains my column of 'Voice for ‘
the Voiceless' under the heading Decaying Health Services and Increasing Suffering of the Voiceless
The NPP narrates as many as 14 'socio-demographic goals' and follows it up by setting out 12 'strategic
themes’ and mentions that for each of the strategic themes, specific operational strategies are described
in an 'Action Plan'. It is not known what these unstated action plans are.
One can find almost all the items listed in the socio-demographic goals and the strategic themes either in
the Indian Constitution or in the early Five Year Plan documents or in the National Health Policy
document of 1982. There is little to show that the authors of NPP have come to a conclusion that this
time the 'Action Plan' they have in mind will deliver the long, long delayed services to the long suffering
voiceless people of the country. Significantly, the authors have chosen to ignore the recommendations of
the Swaminathan Committee of 1994 or what the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi presented in his
inaugural address to the International Population Conference, held in New Delhi in 1989. They ought to
have given reasons why they did not think that the Swaminathan Committee's idea of having a supraministerial National Commission on Population, headed by a highly qualified and respected person, who
w
has executive power and who has a rank of cabinet minister^reporting directly to the Prime Minister,
was not acceptable to them. The same committee also recommended merger of the departments of family
planning with that of health to form a composite ministry. The authors give no reason for rejecting these
recommendations. Worse still, the Swaminathan Committee submitted its report in 1994. Some of the
most respected scholars in this field were members of this Committee In their enthusiasm, they were
’visualisaing a parliamentary’ debate on the report. No such debate took place. A copy was placed in the
Librray of the Parliament ! The fact that the report has been collecting dust all these six years and that it
apparently failed to impress the authors, speaks volumes on the way the bureaucracy works in our
country.
A similar, if not a worse fate meted the 1989 policy framework propounded by the then Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi. He had made some eminently sensible points: no single central pattern of family planning,
formulation of Zonal programmes, depending on specific socio-demographic situations; providing family
planning as a part of an integrated development package; and decentralisation of family planning
administration. It is an awe inspiring demonstration of power by the bureaucracy that they non-challantly
ignored the policy perspective of no less a person as the Prime Minister of the country, what to speak of
the Swaminathan Committee. After some minor changes, the union cabinet has used its collective
wisdom to put its seal of approval to the New National Population Policy based on ideas that flow out of
one-track minds of bureaucrats.
I
I
4
I
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Our Political Bureau
NEW DELH115 FEBRUARY
In a move that is expected to give a boost to states to pursue
population control measures, government today proposed a
freeze on the number of seats in the Lok Sabha at current levels
upto ’26 as part of its new Population Policy.
The meeting of the Union Cabinet here today also endorsed the
setting up of a new panel on population headed by Prime
Minister A B Vajpayee to review the implementation of the
National Population Policy 2000. The new three-pronged policy
aims at population stabilisation by ’45 and continues with the
two-child norm, besides outlining 16 “promotional and
motivational measures” to implement this vigorously. Among the
measures identified for pushing the small family norm were
community level incentives, and family welfare-linked health
insurance schemes for families below the poverty line who
undergo sterilisation after two children.
The cap on number of seats in the Lok Sabha is perceived as
rectifying a lopsided policy by which states such as UP and Bihar
— although they failed to match the population control goals as
effectively as others such as WB, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and
Andhra Pradesh — were allowed more Lok Sabha seats based
on an increased population ratio. The move, according to the
policy, was meant to allow states to “fearlessly pursue” the
policy agenda.
While the immediate objective of the policy has been described
as aimed at meeting the “unmet” needs for contraception, health
care infrastructure, health personnel and integrated service
delivery, the medium term objectives are outlined as aimed at
bringing the total fertility rate to replacement levels (two children
per couple) by ’10 by a vigorous implementation of
'inter-sectoral strategies’. The long-term objective was
described as aiming to achieve a stable population by ’45, at a
level consistent with the requirements of economic growth,
social development and environmental protection.
The Cabinet's endorsement of the new population policy has
received a mixed response from NGOs and health
professionals. Although the move to cap the number of Lok
Sabha seats upto ’26 is perceived as a positive one, the
“promotional measures” outlined for encouraging the new
population policy vigorously have already invited sharp criticism.
The proposal for multi-pronged 'promotional measures’ to push
through population control measures was mooted in the
early-90s by M S Swaminathan (as chairperson of the panel on
the draft population policy), and included measures such as
debarring those with more than two children from contesting in
elections, starting from the local bodies. Even allotment of ration
cards was proposed to be based on the two child norm.
The proposals had come under stringent criticism by both health
professionals and NGOs who contended that this was
tantamount to penalising women whose options regarding
number of children were socially limited, and that the measures
sought to view health facilities for women in general primarily as
reproductive health. Responding to this, Mr Swaminathan had
later toned down his recommendations.
Against this, the contention now is that by once again mooting
Centre adopts a new
Population Policy
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:< ? •' i
Against this, the contention now is that by once again mooting
f" ET 500
“disincentives”, the BJP-led government at the centre was
C ET in the
vioiating the very norms laid down in the Cairo declaration on
■—classroom
population control, to which India is a signatory, and which
r E-commerce repudiated all “incentives” to implement population control, but
focused instead on education and awareness campaigns
--Act
regarding a better standard of living.
r- Business
Health professionals and women activists from NGOs are of the
.-■Guide to
firm view, based on past experience in states such as UP where
.Undia
the government employees used both coercive methods to
falsify statistical records on the CPR (couple protection rate) and
r. IPO
earn 'rewards’, that today’s decision once again takes the focus
{"; India's Date
away from increased budgetary provisions for overall health and
.. with the Y2K
social facilities to women, including those endorsing sustained
r'. India's
nutritional norms for both mother and child, those aimed at
.-richest
controlling the infant mortality rate and those aimed at providing
n Euro and
compulsory functional education for all children, particularly
those in the weaker economic strata.
India
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Population Council | Asia - India
file:///D|/INFO FROM INTERNET/npp-l.htm
HZ3: ?
... ~...........
iThe country program in india is designed to respond to evolving national needs.
:The program portfolio is conceptualized under three major themes: population
policy; reproductive health; and gender, family and development.
y Population IPollicy
J- In z997 the Indian government changed its population policy from one focused
K cn family planning quotas and targets to a broacer reproductive health agenda
H. that encouraged choice and quality of care. The Council’s Indian office has been
H engaged with the process of policy change from its inception, as a research
: advisor to the government, and the staff continue to play a pivotai role in
advancing the new national population policy agenda. Council staff are
Ji undertaking several research, monitoring, and evaluation activities. Through its
Ji media information program, the Council has been informing stakeholders about
i the paradigm shift in the family planning program and the implications of
N: implementing the government's reproductive and child health program.
| information activities draw attention to issues such as sexuality, quality of ca^e,
I: men’s roles, informed contraceptive choice, adolescents’ needs, reproductive
i:| tract infections (RTIs) and HIV/AIDS.
H IR®productive Healltlhi
■ The focus is on several themes including quality of services, safe motherhood,
j unsafe abortion, reproductive tract infections, HIV/AiDS and sexually transmitted
l infections, and sexuality. The Council has done extensive work on improving
j quality q* services and expanding contraceptive choice. Research to assess the
; feasibility of medical abortion in rural settings is underway. The search for
i: feasible and cost-effective ways to provide diagnostic and treatment services for
=■ reproductive tract infections and integrating them within existing programs is
H receiving priority. Operations research on reproductive health is being undertaken
il by the frontiers project and cn HIV/AiDS through the Horizons:Global
j Operations Research on HIV/AIDS/STI Prevention and Care project.
ii i Gender, Family, amd DeveDopmemt
I i The premise is that reproductive health and gender issues are inextricably linked,
j i The Population Council is focusing attention on adolescents and men, important
H population groups that have been bypassed by most programs. Two projects on
T adolescents are being implemented. The first aims to document government and
>; nongovernment programs cn adolescent girls, sharo lessens learned, and
influence policy to address adolescent girls’ needs. The second focuses on
first-time parents. Research is being undertaken to understand adolescent
parents' experience of first pregnancy, their attitudes regarding delaying first and
second births, the information needs of adolescent parents, and the role of family
members in reproductive decisionmaking.
Research is underway to understand how reproductive health decisions are
made by men, including men's roles in women’s decisionmaking and identifying
mechanisms to encourage the positive involvement of men. A current project
aims to: (1) study and collate information on the role and responsibilities of men
in sexual and reproductive health; (2) undertake research on selected priority
issues that have program and policy relevance for India; and (3) organize a
program of education and dissemination to build a constituency for this neglected
field of work.
Hymaiin) aimcS bstitutioiDaill DoveBopmeinitt
A strong underlying effort in all Council programs is to strengthen professional
and institutional in-country capacity. Several modalities are used to achieve this
objective, including a small grants program to train young professionals in social
science research on reproductive health, programs for postdoctoral fellows and
1 of 2
6/22/00 5:51 PM
Population Council | Asia - India
file:///D|/INFO FROM INTERNET/npp-l.htm
interns, and partnerships with national training and research institutions.
Click here for Publications on India.
Also see:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
a
Frontiers in Reproductive Health,
Horizons: Global Operations Research on HIV/AIDS/STI Prevention and
Care,
Safe Motherhood,
Abortion,
Emergency Contraception,
Men's Roles.
Implementing a Reproductive Health Agenda in IndiatThe Beginning, 1999
and news release,
Population Briefs, Vol. 5, No. 2,
Improving Quality of Care in India's Family Welfare Programme, 1999;
and news release.
This page updated on
May 10, 2000.
2 of 2
6/22/00 5:52 PM
Exploding Committees
Jayanthi Natarajan, the feisty and
We need all kinds of people. We Fears have been expressed — after
outspoken, media-savvy face ofthe
need to draw everyone into the dis- the one billion mark was crossed —
Tamil Maanila Congress has been
cussion. Even those less involved.
about population becoming a
minister ofstate for civil aviation
But this could also mean ‘death burden on scarce resources. Do *
and parliamentary affairs, both
by commission’.
you agree?
fairly heavyweight subjects. But she
I do hope not but I must say the
rso,
No, people themselves are our
has never really been known to
government itself has shown very greatest resource. I think we have
espouse development or women’s
little interest in the issue so far.Till plenty of resources to go around,
issues on a national level. So it came date, it is not really aware of the is- but it is unevenly distributed. What
as a bit ofa surprise when her name sues involved and despite the best we need is help every Indian born
was included in the newly-formed
efforts of people like me, Parlia- realise his or her full potential.
jumbo National Population
ment has not even discussed it. How successful have we been in
Commission. On World Population Most ministers in this government realising the goals set at the historic
Day, Jayanthi Natarajan speaks to
still talk of incentives and disincen- Cairo conference?
Lalita Panicker about the rationale lives. This is a death blow to the
Well, we have certainly become a
for the Commission and why
programme. I find a complete lack lot better at speaking on the issue,
population policies have not really
of commitment at the highest level, but there I feel the matter ends.
made a significant difference so far.
But this government formulated the You can see that it is when it comes
population
policy,
uz, ,
r -r
1----- j> so it has done to actually empowering women
Why do you think you were chosen something constructive.
that our government becomes
to be in the National Population
The commission
should
have paralysed.The women’s Bill is still
‘
-------------------— -----Commission, particularly since you been set up before the policy. There pending for lack of consensus but
have never taken up this issue at* was no reason to rush through with you don’t see that happening in the
the national level?
it but then the government did so case
-------off the •insurance
’----------- ”
■”
Bill.
I think I was chosen because I because it does not really care one The government has announced a
have been actively spreading way or another.
new policy on women, we already
awareness among my colleagues. So the room for manoeuvre is have a youth policy and a popula
I have also been involved in limited,
” ' • is
• it?
•tion policy. Don’t you feel there is a
this subject in my state of Tamil
Yes, this will be a problem. I was lot ofoverlap among these?
Nadu where development is the taken by surprise by the speed1 at
This has become a government
final goal and population
~
of policies and committees.
stabilisation its fall-out.
“The population policy sZlTenTwiil* be*1 overlap.’
Population stabilisation is
The population policy itself,
is a lovely document
closely linked with women’s
as pointed out earlier,
which
can
be
framed
empowerment and Tamil
has been around for a while.
and hung on walls. If
Nadu has shown that this is
But so far little has been
the way to go.
we had concentrated on done. The problem we face
It must be a tough task
women’s empowerment is that even existing policies
spreading awareness among
and legislations have not
and literacy, we would
ycrur colleagues.
been acted on, in the
I
not
be
in
the
mess
we
You see people are not
meanwhile new ones are
aware of the dimensions of
| are in now.
framed. This only creates
the issue. Many politicians
confusion and is does not
still talk in terms of control but this which the policy came about. Now make for effective governance
does not mean that they are not it will be difficult for the Commis- or management.
rreceptive
—.to-------new thinking. They sion to incorporate changes which How do you explain the success
get
2"* a“ little startledJ when ’I say
j are contrary to the policy.
of Tamil Nadu in population stabilithat people must be encouraged to But do you have a problem with the sation when it has had less than
have children but what they policy itself?
stable governments?
must be concerned about is the
Well some parts of it deal
The reason_ is_ an extremely
quality of life for them.
iwith disincentives.
’
_r
The r
population
dedicated bureaucracy. The
” peopble
Do you feel we are over the negative policy is a lovely document which have also responded magnificently
connotations that the Emergency can be framed and hung on walls,
v.'slk, Great
Crest men like Kamaraj
Y------- ’ placed
’
’ a
gave to the issue offamily planning, but it does not have a concrete plan lot of emphasis
±' Cs on literacy and
this being 25 years after the event?
of action. If we had concentrated later MGR took up the mid-day
No, we are not fully over it. Com- on women’s empowerment
__..r
and meal scheme. These have helped
pulsory sterilisation has wounded literacy, we would not be in the enormously.
the people’s psyche in such a deep mess we are in now.
What needs to be done to translate
way that things will still take Z'
’ .2
Ministries
which
deal with women population rhetoric into reality?
time to set right. It was really such a and health are never very sought
J affWe must stress on the quality of
*i_ _ _i_
you yOurse[f stayed away from
By thjs j mean during pregnan.
major setback.
You are part of a 140-member them when you were in power. Is cy and childbirth. We have unacCommission on jPopulation. Do this not part of the problem?
ceptable figures of maternal and
you really feel that such a mammoth
Yes, indeed, in the Gujral govern- child mortality. We now know that
commission is needed to tackle ment I was in defence. I begged compulsion does not work. In fact,
the issue?
him to give me a health or women this approach is dangerous. I was
I would have beenhappier if it portfolio but he did not.
shocked the other day to see offihad been smaller. Nevertheless,, I The statements made by Renuka cials and politicians in AP saying
amihappy it was constituted at all, I Choudhary, for example, have been they would not give people wells if
am never pessimistic.
detrimental to the population issue, they did not undergo vasectomy.
Dp you really think that packing the Do
like Women have no say in family size
r»„ you agree with slogans /•/_,
Commission with all sorts ofpeople ‘one is fun'?
and we have to empower them to
who have never actively contributed
I certainly do not agree with change. Only then can we hope to
to this issue will be productive?
such slogans.
achieve population stabilisation.
i
Ir
NASSCOM and IBA present
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_ ___
Ahmedabai
V
1
Hp- 7.
SUMMARY RECORD OF
JOINT UNFPA - FORD FOUNDATION
PLANNING MEETING OF NGOs ORGANIZING REGIONAL MEETINGS
New Delhi , 23 September, 1993
Welcoming the parttcipants, C P Sujaya said that health and
population issues affect all of us and this was an excellent
opportunity to initiate a nation wide dialogue. Dr Saroj Pachauri
and Ms Ena Singh traced the background of this effort and located
the problem in the national and international context.
Packground:
Some NGOs had an opportunity to participate in Prep Com II in
May. 1992. Reviewing their participation most of them opined that
the Indian NGOs did not have sufficient opportunity to think
through the issues with their colleagues. Many NGOs had met for the
first time in New York. Participants were invited to come up with
practical suggestions to promote information exchange on Prep Com
and ICPD, especially in
promoting meetings of NGOs and sharing
irmormation. There was a general consensus that regional meetings
of NGOs should be facilitated in order to generate wide debate on
health and population issues. There was also a suggestion to
organize thematic meetings on key issues. It was felt that many
'NGOs were unaware of the accreditation process and that these
regional meetings would enable more NGOs to accredit themselves.
Responding to this request, Ford Foundation and UNFPA jointly
decided to facilitate regional meetings of NGOs on women’s health
and population issues.
While the preparatory process for ICPD has provided the
immediate opportunity to initiate a broad based debate, one of the
main objectives of the regional meetings is to kindle a renewed
interest and also bring together three related yet seemingly
exclusive constituencies - namely:
i
Health professionals primarily concerned with Maternal
and Child Health MCH. Over the years the "M” went missing
and therefore a safe-motherhood campaign was started.
ii
The population community, who have been more concerned with
birth rates and demographic targets. They have used FP as a
major
vehicle
to
control
numbers.
By
and
large
this
constituency concerned about the human element - for them the
individual needs are compromised for a "larger goal". In
India, women have been the main victims of such an approach.
1i:
Women’s organizat'ons, activists and feminists have been more
concerned with a holistic approach. They have been arguing fcr
2
to
family
planning
and
a
women’s
health
approach
been
in
the
forefront
of
a
i
n
contraceptives - and have thus
root
causes
of
high
fertility,
struggle to acknowledge the
They
have therefore
namely poverty
and powerlessness,
emphasized a life cycle approach.
There has been increasing polarization between the feminists
and the
The population radicals are less
the population
population lobby.
lobby.
concerned about individual rights and are preoccupied with macro
trends. The feminist radicals emphasize the need to recognize human
rights, and women’s reproductive rights as pre-conditions to any
coherent FP strategy.
There is, however,
a large group of
individuals and organizations who fall somewhere in between. The
coercive and abusive face of FP has also alienated a large sec ion
of society. Similarly, there is a universal demand for the right to
full and complete information, to make informed choices and a need
to ensure quality of service.
• ICPD provides a good opportunity to articulate key issues in
an international forum - using the internal process of nation wi e
dialogue to highlight critical issues, and in turn, utilize an
i nternationa 1 forur. to lobby for change at the national
eve .
logistics of the regional meetings^
SEWA, Ahmedabad
They plan to hold their meeting on October 16
and 17 in Ahmedabad. Theirs will be a meeting
of grassroots workers, NGOs, activists, some
journalists and officials. In addition to
other general issues, this meeting will focus
on occupational health and the pressing needs
of rural women.
VHAI , M P
7
j on people working at the
They plan to focus
panchayat
and will invite social
level of the j
The
dates
have not been
action groups,
finali zed.
VHAI , H imachal
Have not yet planned
Dates not finalized.
Punj ab
and Haryana
FPAI ,
the
regional
meeting .
They plan to focus on quality of FP services,
status of women in Punjab and Haryana and the
need for sex educat i on . They will invite NGOs
and interested persons from the government.
Meetings are to be held in three phases:
October 12, ’93 - Punjab, October 15, Haryana
and November 3 or 4 or 5, *93 a joint meeting
in Chandigarh.
3
YUVA, Maharashtra
They plan to invite a wide-cross section of
organ i zat i ons anc individuals. Trey will try
to give all rnajc- const i tuenci es_a chance to
explain their
point
of view.
ney do
not
expect
a
consensual
outcome
but
will
definitely try to create a common platform.
They plan to invite government officials in
the concluding plenary. The meeting will be
held in Bombay after November 15,
URMUL, Rajasthan
Within their bread framework of sustainable
health
and
education
the
1. i veli hood,,
regional meeting would try to art:culate^poor
Thei r
women’s
concern
about
health
care,
meeting will be held from 1-3 November, ’93.
Three meetings w'll be held in UP. The first
November
28-30,
’93
in
one
will
be
or.
Varanasi, to be followed by a meeting in West
UP around November 1st week and in the hills
in mid- December.
VHAI , UP
PSS, Delhi
IWID,
’93.
Nadu
invite a very wide c^oss-section
of people and organizations - especially NGOs
meeting fill be held
and women’s groups. This -------in Delhi from December 13-15, ’ 93.
Y;
They
plan to
control
of
Their
focus
be
on
the
focus will
and
the
role
sexuality and fertility of women
of the state. They plan to invite NGOs working
in the area of women’s development and health.
This meeting will be held from 29-30
29-cO November,
’93.
RUSEC, T.Nadu
There was a lot of interest in
i n the sharply
T ami 1 Nadu. In
declining fertility rates in Tamil
it was
felt that a
special
this context,
working
at
the
village
level
meeting of women
in
order
to
get
treir
view
of
wi 11 be convened
and
women
’
s
access
to
health
the FP programme
care. RUSEC will organize» them in two stages
the f i rst ini ate October
<--------------- / Early November and
the latter
Madhyam,
Karnataka
in early January.
Madhyam is coordinating the meeting which is
being convened by the Forum for Women’s Health
in
Karnataka.
In
addition
to the
general
issues concerning women and health, they plan
to focus on the ongoing Norplant trials. Dates
are yet to be finalized.
!
4
CINI, Orissa
CINI, W. Bengal
on 24-25
They plan, to organize the meeting
October, ’93 in Bhubaneshwar.
’ 93
This meeting will be held on 1-2 December,
in Calcutta.
thematic meetings after the
to organize a few
It is proposed
,
■bej decided on the
regional meetings. The topics / themes would
of
issues that emerge
basis on the extent of
c.‘ interest and the range c.
from the regional meetings.
Key issues identified by the nodal NGOsj.
Dr Sundari Ravindran initiated the discussion and requested
issues that concern them.
all the participants to outline the main
"1 the nodal NGOs to
said,
would
enable
all
This discussion, she
3
__
focus cof discussions in the
identify
key issues that could be the
comprehensive listing of issues
reg-ional meetings. Given below is a c. have been classified for
.
tabled by the participants.
They
conven i ence.
1 .
Systemic or Macro-issues
-----
------
2.
— ——3 —
in order to enable
Initiate an unlearning process
’ j the
fundamental causes of
policy makers to acknowledge
t..
,'high
mortality
- urgent need
ill health, high fertility,
cliches
and
formulae.
to move away from popular <
priority
of decertrai
the State .2at.on
People’s pr-iorities_versus_ r
.
RZZof hope through Panchayati Raj - but decentralization
:5 hand with financial resources.
should go hand in
Women seen as "baby producing machines to
tobe
be control
controlled^
who are a "hinderance to development - which is the root
cause of anti-people / anti-women poUci_es.
Development has destroyed the traditional systems and
for example, the systematic
spaces available to women
of Dais - traditional birth
decline of the institution
-- attendants.
poli ci es on peoples
Impact of structural wadjustment
health.
Need to fight against linking population control with IMF
conditionalities.
,
GATT,
intellectual
property rights and indigenous
knowledge systems.
, oth^r
Need for different constituencies to talk to each othand try and work towards an agreed agenda.
Reorienting the planning process
and their ability to ma'r.e
-Respect people’s Iknowledge
--choices.
-Poor women have no say in decision-making process
-Poor women’s concerns not reflected in policy
-Life cycle approach.
-
I:
5
Population is not the root cause of under-development need to look at consumption patterns - "one child per
family in the South but two cars per family in the North"
Food security important part of policy.
3.
Information
-----Media’s role in projecting issues and pushing "population
control"
-----Advocacy at the macro level.
-----Awareness of STD and AIDS to go hand i n hand with
information on contraceptives.
----Women’s access to full and correct information
4.
Accountabi1 i ty
and devise mechan isms for
-----Sensitize
policy
makers
monitoring services.
-----Locate responsibility at each level - who is responsible
for what - diffused accountability systems need to be
changed.
-----Exploitation of health personnel at the service end of
the health delivery system - sexual and ether forms of
harassment of female health workers, burden of a targetdriven system on the morale of the health worker and need
for a support system - especially when field workers are
harassed, raped or abused.
5.
Quality of care
----FP as ’t is affecting us in many ways - women are
i ng qual
i ty of care
humiliated and angry. Need to br
bring
quality
consc
i
ousness
issues in the forefront of national consciousness.. The
very act of discussing FP does not give it credibility
it is recessary to make the system acknowledge where i t
is going wrong and make it bend.
----Unsafe and illegal abortion - major cause of materna1
mortality. Need for safe abortion facilities.
----Privatize FP and social marketing of contraceptive to
improve access and promote quality.
6.
Demand for ccTprehensive services
-----Alarmed over gradual shift from a comprehensive approach
to primary health to compartmentalised campaign for FP,
STD/AIDS.
----Important health issues neglected
----TB and malaria ignored
7.
Targets and incentives
----
Impact of target-oriented approach - the real face of FP
It is not enough to remove targets - but the system
should ce made to treat other diseases, ensure sa^e
motherhood and general health care.
Careful look at existing range of i ncenti ves and disincenti\es and its impact.
6
8.
New contraceptive technologies
-----Introduction of new technologies
need tc be publicized
and monitored.
-----------
9.
10.
Male responsibi 1ity in FP
-----If MCH and FP are together where do men go for FP?
-----Recognize decision makers are men - need to focus on male
responsi bi 1i ty.
-----Policies and programmes targeted on women, need to shift
focus on men.
-----Information and education of adolescent boys.
-----Focus population education and family life education on
men and boys also - in the conte/Xt of their changing
roles.
Supportive legislation
---1 1 .
Need to campaign against the introduction of Norplant and
other contraceptive technologies into the FP programme.
Ethics of trials.
need for child care, maternity
Whole issue of choice
benef i ts.
Recognize reproductive role of men.
Need for part-time jobs.
Fertility control, women’s empowerment and reproductive rights
Women are trapped in a no-choice situation - between high
-----fertility [no access to safe contraception] and fertility
control approach of the government.
-----Locate fertility control
in the context cf women’s
control over their bodies j- empowering women to take
control of their lives
and a life cycle approach.
-Women’s health approach
--
Women’s health in women’s hands
-----
What is a women-centered approach and how tc make it a
decentralized process
Increasing incidence of abuse of adolescent girls
Declining health status of women - compare grand-mother,
------
mother and daughter
Women, work, double burden and occupational realtn.
Alarming increase of sex determination facilities
followed by abortion of female foetus, female 'rfanticide
and neglect of female children.
Need to guard against appropriation of wcrds 1i ke
reproductive rights and stripping it of its essence.
7
eetinc Venue and dates
fDates
Organizer
State
Venue
• October 1 2
FPAI,
Chandigarh
Punjab
To be decided
October
FPAI,
Chandigarh
Haryana
Yamuna Nagar
October 16-17
SEhA,
Ahmedabad
Guj arat
Ahmedabad
October24-25
CINI, Calcutta
Or i ssa
Bhubaneshwar
Nov’ber 1-3
UFMJL, Bi kaner
Raj asthan Lunkaransar
Nov*ber 3or5
FPAI, Chandigarh
Punjab +
Haryana
Chandigarh
1 5
r
i
|Nov’ber 1 wk
VH • I ,
UP
To be decided
I Nov’ber 1 wk
;or December
RJSEC, Madras
T Nadu
To be decided
£k;Nov ber15- 1 6
VH •
Patna
Bihar
Patna
Bombay
Maha’stra Bombay
It
;Nov’ber 3 wk |
F
*
! Nov ’ ber28^'3O
VHAI, Varanasi
UP
Varanasi
Dec’ber 1-3
CIN1,
W Bengal
Calcutta
Dec’ber10- 1 1
Madnyam,
Calcutta
3’1 ore
Karnataka Bangalore
f Dec’ber13-14
PSS
N Delhi
Delhi
New Delhi
Dec *ber20-21
IWID
Madras
T Nadu
Madras
tDec’ber 3 wk
VHAI ,
UP Hills
To be decided
VHAI, Madhya Pradesh
finalized their cates.
and
H i macha1
Pradesh
nave
yet
Note: All the noca1 NGOs are requested to communicate the exact
venue and any change in dates / venue i mmedi ately. va^es ano
addresses of the nodal NGOs are attached.
8
Informati on
fol lowing:
on
chance
of
dates
L
to
the
Koenig, Ford Foundation,
New
venue
may
be
1 .
Dr. Mira Shiva, Heaa of Division, Public Policy
VHAI, Voluntary Health Association of India
Tong Swasthya Bhavan, 40 Institutional Area
Near Qutab Hotel, New Delhi 110016
2.
Dr. Saroj Pachauri / Dr. Michael
Delhi
3.
Ms.
sent
Ena Singh / Ms. Vimala Ramachandran, UNFPA, New Delhi
Journalists expressing interest in covering these meetings :
4.
Ms. Usha Rai,
Delhi 110001
5.
Ms.
Ind i an
Kalpana Sharma, The Hindu,
Member of the National
population Policy :
6.
Express,
Commi ttee
Bahadurshah
Zafar
Marg,
New
of
the
Bombay
for
the
formulati on
Ms Devaki Jain, Institute of Social Studies Trust, 5 Deen
Dayal Upadhayay Marg, Above Theatre Crafts Museum, New Delhi
110001.
i
- Media
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