MUMBAI: In the mid-1970s, India was so worried about its explosive population growth that policemen and officials travelled to villages to sterilise men, who hid in sugar cane fields or climbed trees to avoid vasectomies.
School teachers, under pressure to meet family planning targets given to them by the government, forced fathers of their students to sterilise, before a public outcry drove authorities to abandon these desperate attempts.
Nearly three decades on, a new, non-coercive policy — emphasising education of women and health care rather than demographic control — has thrown up surprising results.
Population growth has slowed from four per cent in the 1960s to about 1.7 per cent now, fuelling hopes of stable growth by the middle of the century in a country with the world’s second largest population at 1.1 billion people.
Some experts predict population growth could turn out to be a boon to the economy, one of the fastest growing in the world.
Since half of India’s population is younger than 25, it gives the country a potential edge over China, where an ageing population — the result of a one-child policy — could slow its economy by 2030, they said.
“It is an advantage for India now because the country is entering the demographic dividend phase while China is exiting it,” said Bikram Sen, a former Indian census director.
Demographic dividend refers to a period — usually 20 to 30 years — when a greater proportion of people are working, which cuts spending on dependants, aiding economic growth.
India is hoping by the time this dividend phase ends, around 2045, it will have achieved a stable and balanced population.
There is a catch however.
“Whether India can benefit from its young population will depend on economic development and equitable social development,” said A. R. Nanda, executive director of the Population Foundation of India, a research agency.
Education will play an important role.
“Education is the key to a better economy and a controlled population,” Sen said. “Until now, the world blamed India for its huge population, but now it could envy it.”
Population control has long been a delicate issue in India where politicians are wary of promoting family planning too vigorously, mindful of the lessons of history.
In the 1970s, the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, which ordered the sterilisation programme, was thrown out in elections — her worst defeats coming in areas where the family planning campaign was robustly implemented.
In a country blighted by decades of poverty and illiteracy, many people, especially in rural India, still see an extra child as an extra pair of hands.
“People with large families are usually the ones who are outside the formal economy,” said Nanda. “For them each child is an economic asset.”
However, this concept has strained city resources as migrants from the countryside crowd in, looking for work.
Some experts worry the still rising population could rein in economic growth of around eight per cent a year.
The government’s new population policy helped bring down the total fertility rate — or the number of children a woman gives birth to during her lifetime — from nearly six in the 1960s to the present three, but even that number is still high, and means an additional 15.5 million people each year.
Some experts complain the government’s policy is too hit-and-miss. —Reuters
