Date:16/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/16/stories/2008081654201003.htm

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Population policy

The article “Population policy and legal prescriptions” (Aug. 13) has once again brought to the fore the long forgotten population issue. It was in the early 1990s that the government conducted a plethora of awareness programmes on birth control in the mass media, including television.

Today’s government seems to be more concerned about economic growth without addressing the major factor affecting it. Unless stringent realistic measures are taken to control the population, all development plans and programmes will be rendered worthless, as in the last 58 years.

Saurabh Walia,

New Delhi

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In his illuminating article, V.R. Krishna Iyer has underlined the need to contain the alarming population growth in India which is posing a grave threat to the country and jeopardising the ecological balance.

If concerted action is not taken immediately to encourage family planning by prescribing the two-child norm irrespective of religion, population explosion will threaten the country outstripping the means of subsistence.

Sai Sudha Nemani,

Hyderabad

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By adopting scientific methods, use of improved seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation facilities we have achieved self-sufficiency in foodgrains. But this is disproportionate to the enormous rise in population. Unless population growth is controlled, any number of Five Year Plans will be a waste.

B. Vishwanatha Rao,

Hyderabad

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Justice Iyer’s views are anti-women, anti-poor, and reactionary. His article, replaying the Malthusian fears, in complete ignorance of the progressive ideas in the area, shows how difficult it is to change mindsets. The National Human Rights Commission, not to mention the National Population Policy (2000), abjures incentives and, in particular, disincentives.

There is a paradigm shift in the population discourse that the Cairo conference is said to have brought about. It is widely acknowledged that birth rates are declining globally, and in large parts of India. Hastening the process would require investment in health, education and, above all, equitable development.

Mohan Rao,

New Delhi