Alarming facts

Parliamentarians from seven nations met recently to discuss one of the country's pressing problems - population explosion. M. SRINATH NARAYAN writes...

AS MANY as seven European Parliamentarians made a beeline for India, more specially to Chennai, to study the efforts of Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in addressing issues relating to India's most pressing problem - its one billion population.

It is a real feather in the cap for the Chennai chapter of the Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) that the all-women team of seven European MPs converged at its office and visited its project sites in and around Chennai.

The problems of plenty as derived from the country's 100 crore people, have always been blighted by several endemic features like gender inequity, female infanticide and ignorance of sexual and reproductive health.

At an interaction with the Press this past week in Chennai, Elena Poptodorova (MP from Bulgaria), the leader of the delegation, spoke on the various issues that have dogged her country. Interestingly, both she and the Finnish MP, Tuula Haatainene, were most concerned about the declining population back home!

Elena held forth the importance of enhancing the family's well- being by State intervention in relevant countries and stressed the need for emotional stability, especially in children.

In reply, Indian MP Jayanthi Natarajan, bemoaned the fact that population stabilisation measures were getting a short shrift in India compared to more glamorous planks like IT initiatives or free grain distribution.

She quipped that when Tamil Nadu had been recognised as the leader in achieving population stability, it might mean reduction in the number of MPs from the State because of less people!

Luisa Portugal, the Portuguese MP, observed that she had definitely seen the percolation of Government initiatives to the ground level during her current visit, as against her initial foray into India's rural areas 10 years ago.

Dr. Narayan Reddy, India's leading sexologist, highlighted the paramount importance of sex education by FPAI in countering AIDS.

He observed that Chennai has been credited with identifying the country's first AIDS case way back in 1986 when Dr. Sunithi Solomon conducted tests on several young women rescued from the redlight areas of Mumbai.

Edeltraud Gatterer (Austria's MP) was particularly proud of her country's distinguished lineage - Ludwig Van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sigmund Freud et al.

She distanced herself from Adolf Hitler, born in Austria, since his population control measures in decimating Jews earned worldwide condemnation.

The evening ended with a passionate appeal from FPAI Chennai's president, Jaya Sitaram for the Executive, the Legislature and social activists to come together in addressing India's population stability issues.

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