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Journalism of Courage
Smt Pratibha Patil (Health Minister): Hon’ble Adhyaksha Maharaj, a discussion has just been held on a proposal moved in the House by hon’ble members Shri Metkar and Smt Kamala Raman. This is a very important resolution, and both the House and people at large need to focus their attention on this issue. Sir, there is no need for me to explain the situation that prevails in Maharashtra and the country. But, taking into account the nature of our society, we should not think about this matter in extreme terms.
Family planning is not done properly, and therefore population is increasing. In the past, the House has discussed the problem of rising unemployment among the educated, of acute housing shortage, and water shortage. We need more schools, more dispensaries — the scarcity is because we have not been able to achieve the level of family planning required. Demand is increasing because population is increasing. Any practical person can say this without citing any theory or reading a book. Therefore, it is very important that people adopt family planning as their way of life and consider what steps they need to take to achieve this.
Although this resolution has suggested that sterilisation be made compulsary through law, we need to consider to what extent this will be proper. Even if we legislate on the issue, we will have to think of administrative constraints in its implementation.
On principle, there is no reason why we should not legislate on this issue, but we should seek the advice of the central government and the people. We also need to examine whether the legislation will be constitutionally proper. While propagating family planning, we need to consider what has transpired in the past. We had given poor people monetary incentives. But in the recent past, incentives have reduced. Now, we need to undertake different measures.
The government is trying to work out ways to encourage people. Shrimati Kamala Raman has suggested that we should levy some cess on families that have more children. I think there is nothing objectionable in exploring this suggestion. Likewise, I also think that there is nothing wrong in considering the introduction of a state income tax, if we can. However, all these issues will have to be considered by the government before introducing them.
We need social education to create the right mindset about family planning. We can see some results in Maharashtra, but we need to perform better. We are considering compulsory sterilisation of people suffering from heriditary diseases. Some people are already benefitting from this. We need to incroduce sex education in our schools — the government is considering this. The government is thinking of education, incentives and disincentives on the one hand and compulsory sterilisation on the other hand.
The government is seriously considering compulsorily sterilisation of those with inheritable diseases, and it has appointed a committee to review this option. The committee includes social workers and doctors. I feel that it will be possible to take a decision soon.
Any educated person starts to feel disturbed on seeing our population growth, and starts to think of family planning as a viable answer. The government now needs to assess to what extent and through what means family planning can be implemented. Shri Deshmukh has said that this law does not apply to the Muslim community. But family planning is not a law and therefore the question does not arise. Even then, we are offering different types of facilities to encourage people. The population of the Muslim community, as per the 1971 census was 8.40 per cent, and the percentage of sterilisation in 1974-5 was 7.43 per cent. So, the sterilisation proportion and the share of population for Muslims was more or less same. In this connection, even if Shri Banatwala (the Muslim League leader who opposed family planning) says that nobody listens to him, there are parents who are more concerned about feeding their children. Ultimately, when the issues of livelihood, food and raising children arise, the Muslim community too resorts to family planning. In the Christian community, too, the proportion of sterilisation is 1.62 per cent, which is 99 per cent of the total Christian population. So the thought of family planning is becoming stronger.
Hon’ble member Shri Deshmukh said that a community should profess its own religion, but my opinion is that religion should be kept at home and family planning should be considered the true religion. It is not proper to say that family planning is against any religion. The true religion is Manavta Dharma. It is the ability to provide the love and care that our children deserve. This can be done through family planning.
