The Hindu : National : No coercive population policy: Manmohan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 22, 2004

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National

No coercive population policy: Manmohan

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 21. The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has assured women that his Government would not adopt a "coercive" population policy. He said he personally did not favour the two-child norm and felt that people should have the freedom to choose the number of children they wanted. The assurance came when a five-member delegation from various organisations met Dr. Singh at his residence today to protest against the Union Health Ministry's move to implement a "coercive" population policy under the guise of the Rural Health Mission. Dr. Singh said he would not allow the Health Mission to be "hijacked" by the population control policy and added that there would be a public debate on the issue, Brinda Karat, vice-president of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), told reporters after the meeting.

In a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister, the delegation wanted the proposed Rural Health Mission to be subjected to a public debate before being implemented and measures be initiated to reverse the "alarming trends" in the health sector during the nineties.

The delegation comprised Veena Mazumdar of the Centre for Women's Development Studies, Razia Ismail of the India Alliance for Child Rights, Dr. Mohan Rao of the Centre for Family Health and Social Medicine (JNU) and the sociologist, Dr. Sabbu George. "There should be no place for harmful contraceptive technologies such as injectables and implants nor for sterilisation with the aid of incentives or disincentives. The targets should not be specified for the village and community level health workers or private practitioners," the memorandum said. Welcoming the United Progressive Alliance's commitment to increasing State spending on health, the delegation demanded strengthening of the public health care system to provide a universal and comprehensive primary health care. The Government earned tremendous admiration within and outside the country by reserving a minimum of one-third of seats for women in all local government bodies. But these objectives were vitiated when several States made the two-child norm as a qualification for panchs, it said.

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