NEW DELHI: Forty-six million Indian husbands will have to be sterilised if the Government goes through with a legislation now being planned to limit families to three children, Health Minister Sripati Chandrasekhar said yesterday [July 22].

He told [agencies] the Government was seeking legal opinion on the question of human rights and religious beliefs under the Constitution and had also asked for a written opinion from all state Governments.

If there were no substantial objections it was hoped to get the law into action by January 1969.

“This piece of legislation is not being undertaken in any light-hearted manner,” Dr Chandrasekhar said.

“A great deal of thought and anguish has come into it. But we now have 515 million people and are adding 13 million every year. We are not able to provide adequate food, clothing, housing, education or health facilities. There is a sense of desperation on the part of some of our leaders.

“I hope to start a national dialogue to elicit opinion so that when legislation is finally put on the statute book there will be a body of public opinion behind it.”

[Meanwhile, as reported by agencies in Adapazari, Turkey,] more tremors rocked devastated western Turkey today [July 23] after last night’s death-dealing earthquake, but Govern­ment officials hoped the final death toll would not be more than 100.

Provisional figures prepared for Premier Suleyman Demirel put the number of people killed at around 70.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2017