Ministries gear up to welcome India’s one-billionth citizen

There’s a lesser known unpleasant truth that is worrying them, one which they think should be the prime concern of the government if it is serious about making a dent in curbing the country’s runaway population growth.

And this is the virtual non-performance of four states – namely Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, which with their abysmal social indicators are pulling down the national average on every count – be it fertility or literacy rates, infant or maternal mortality or life expectancy levels.

Clubbed together as the BIMARU states, these four states as the name suggests pose the greatest challenge to efforts to change the country’s socio-demographic and economic profile.

Since these states together form an overwhelming 40 per cent of the country’s population, and account for about 42 per cent of the increase, strategies to counter this trend should get top billing.

"Crossing the one billion mark is a non-event. It is a matter of demographic momentum, an inevitable consequence of population growth", dismisses noted demographer, Ashish Bose, who describes himself as the government’s most stringent critic on population issues.

Instead of touting the success of a Kerala or a Tamil Nadu in curbing population, government should concentrate its efforts on the BIMARU states whose record in family planning is shockingly poor.

This is where the demographers feel that the National Population Policy 2000, announced by the government in February this year, has failed. The policy, which many describe as a "please all" policy, does not outline specific measures by these states to change their population control strategies.

"Except for saying that a Technology Mission will be set up to deal with the worst-performing states, the Policy says little else on the BIMARU states which form 40 per cent of the population and are soon reaching 50 per cent", says Bose.

Development experts suggest a region-specific strategy which takes into account the inheritance of social backwardness and illiteracy, which coupled with a history of political instability and administrative lethargy make it almost impossible to implement any social development programmes, including those relating to population, with any degree of consistency.

Unlike the situation in the southern states, another major problem is the lack of women’s empowerment in decisions concerning family size. According to Michael Vlassof, India representative of the UN Population Fund, part of the answer to curbing and stabilising population in these states would be the empowerment of women.

But demographers and development experts alike agree that ultimately its only the survival of the child that will change peoples attitudes. "You can only get people to adopt a small family norm, when you remove the root cause of their fear… namely infant and child mortality. Ensure that children will grow to adulthood, and you already have won half the battle", says one population expert.