The Hindu : Fixing population targets will backfire: report

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 21, 2003

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Fixing population targets will backfire: report

By Gargi Parsai

New Delhi Dec. 20. In various contexts, particularly in achieving population stabilisation, China is often cited as the best example of how it should be done, its political structure notwithstanding.

But recently, China was cited as an example of how it should not be done, by none other than the former Secretary in the Department of Family Welfare and now Director of the Population Foundation of India, an NGO, A.R. Nanda.

"Recent attempts at putting targets from above will result in a China-like situation. In 1979, before China introduced the one-child norm, its fertility levels were declining. But the introduction of the one-child norm resulted in a spurt in female foeticide. As a result the girl-boy sex ratio fell precariously to 117 girls per 1,000 boys there. In India, Punjab is heading towards that situation in the zero to six age-group,'' he said recently at a function to release the Foundation's report on State Level Advocacy Against Pre-Birth Elimination of Females in Orissa and Rajasthan.

Mr. Nanda was hinting at the proposal to revive the Bill for the two-child norm for legislators and members of Parliament by the NDA Government at the Centre. Although the Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who introduced the norm during his tenure as the Chief Minister in Rajasthan, is the biggest advocate of the proposal, several NGOs and voluntary agencies working in the field are against it. They feel that unless there are enabling facilities — health infrastructure, meeting unmet needs for contraceptives, better infant and maternal mortality — on the ground the move may backfire. With the obsession for a male child, such legislation will force women into sex selective abortions and deny them the opportunities for empowerment, it is largely felt.

The Registrar-General of India, J.K. Banthia, said it was a paradox that a society claiming to be a votary of non-violence saw female foeticide spreading like cancer. "It is a real frightening picture. I fear that if nothing is done then in the 2011 census we may have to do a reverse count, looking for not-bad States instead of good ones. The indicators are our social response to the girl child, '' he said while releasing the report produced joint by Plan India and the Foundation.

Statistics show that from 945 per 1000, in 1991 the girl: boy ratio had slipped to 927 per 1000 in 2001 in the country. The worst-affected districts are in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Orissa, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Misuse of new scientific technology, combined with age-old prejudices and myths about a girl child among the people was resulting in a rise in female foeticide in the country. There is a clear-cut linkage of affluence with female foeticide. It starts from urban areas and spreads to nearby rural areas,'' Mr. Banthia said.

"The impact of the two-child norm of certain State Governments is directly interfering with the reproductive rights and informed choices in the family leading to sex-selective abortions.,'' the report observes.

The child sex ratio in the age-group of 0 to 6 in Rajasthan slipped from 916 girls per 1000 boys to 909 per 1000 in 2001. In Orissa, it slipped from 967 in 1991 to 950 per 1000 in 2001.Twenty-eight out of 30 districts in Orissa and 20 out of 32 districts in Rajasthan have shown a decline in the child sex ratio. The child sex ratio in the age-group of 0 to 6 is an important indicator of the overall balance in the sex ratio of the population.

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