Events

Jointly organized by Asia Research Institute, and Centre for Family and Population Research, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore.

CHAIRPERSON

Prof Wei-Jun Jean Yeung, Asia Research Institute, Centre for Family and Population Research, and Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Ever since Independence in 1947, India’s population size, its runaway growth, as many believed, and the fear that these continue to nullify efforts at development have dominated the policy makers and politicians. In order to curb the population growth India launched family planning programme in 1952. I propose to briefly trace the measures undertaken till date to attain population stabilization (‘politically correct term’ that is increasingly used for population control). I will discuss how the limited understanding of how population grows continues to influence the programme even today and misplaced emphasis is laid on measures that are unlikely to address the core concerns of women and couples who do want to limit their family size.

The typical bureaucratic zeal and predilections towards records, targets, numbers, and incentives, and in spite of widening the basket of contraceptive methods, emphasis on female sterilization continue to guide the implementation of India’s family programme. In my view these have been responsible for losing sight of the key factors that need to be addressed – i.e. high infant and child mortality, effective communication with largely illiterate population, quality of care, client-centered services, meeting the unmet need for family planning, etc. A large number of contraceptive method-specific manuals are prepared to guide the providers in implementation but adherence to them and monitoring continues to be extremely weak and have sometimes resulted in deaths of women undergoing sterilization. I shall highlight these concerns and highlight that the focus needs to be on planning for a population of 1.5 billion by 2030 and of 1.7-1.8 billion by 2050 for wellbeing of all Indians young and old.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Leela Visaria holds a PhD in Sociology from Princeton University and is currently an honorary Professor at Gujarat Institute of Development Research (GIDR), Ahmedabad, India. During 2002-2004 she served as the director at GIDR. She has researched in historical demography, health, family planning, education and demographic transition. Her articles have appeared in several peer-reviewed scholarly journals. She has authored, co‑authored and edited seven books including Twenty-first Century India: Population, Economy, Human Development and the Environment (edited jointly with Tim Dyson and Robert Cassen), Oxford University Press, 2004; Abortion in India: Ground Reality (edited with Vimala Ramachandran), Routledge Press, 2007; and India’s Family Planning Programme: Policies, Practices and Challenges(jointly with Rajani Ved), Routledge Press, 2016. During 1994-2008, she served as a coordinator of HealthWatch, a network of non‑governmental organizations and researchers. She was awarded National Professorship by Indian Council for Social Science Research during 2008-09. She was elected as the first President of Asian Population Association during 2009-10.

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