The numbers game

What is it about the government8217;s population policy that lends itself to the most superficial, even frivolous, treatment? The Centre8217;s decision to set up the National Commission on Population earlier this year has already strained the citizen8217;s credulity quite considerably, what with its gargantuan membership which numbers over a hundred, including sundry film stars and socialites who ostensibly function as 8220;role models8221;. Now news has come in that the Maharashtra government has set up a unique body called the Women8217;s Council on Population Policy. Nothing unexceptional about that, you8217;d say, seeing that women8217;s participation is so essential in altering social perceptions on family planning. However, if 8220;women8217;s participation8221; translates into 8220;participation of wives8221;, as is the case in this instance, then something is clearly amiss.

It now transpires, two months after the above mentioned population council was formed, that the wives of eight ministers in the Maharashtra state cabinet, including that of the chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, have been inducted into it. It should surprise no one then that the women so appointed were totally clueless about what they were meant to do. Some admitted to this newspaper that they were complete novices in the field, more comfortable looking after their homes than providing expert advice on the population policy. In fact, they were not even aware that such an honour was coming their way. As it happened, the officials of the state8217;s health department also could not come up with a rational justification for this strange recruitment policy. By every token, therefore, the appointments were inappropriate and done in a hurried and time-serving manner. They mock not just principles of accountability but the Maharashtra government8217;s avowed commitment to family welfare and the health of its citizens.

Such a cavalier attitude to family planning administration had proved disastrous in the past with the images of the transistor radio and laparoscopy camp of the emergency still looming large as ugly leitmotifs of an unhappy era. Sanjay Gandhi and his chic set presided over the sterilisation circus that family planning in those days had been reduced to. These people were so totally removed from the reality of people8217;s lives that although the evidence stared them in the face they just could not perceive the preposterous nature of their project.

This, of course, is not to transfer the guilt of those misguided stormtroopers on to the shoulders of the newly-inducted members of Maharashtra8217;s Women8217;s Council on Population Policy. But it is necessary to sound a cautionary note on the dangers of placing people who are out of sync with the complex processes of health and family welfare in positions where they are called upon to take crucial decisions affecting numerous lives.The country certainly needs good people to preside over such bodies. But 8220;good8221; in this case should rightly mean experienced health and family welfare activists and specialists, with a proven commitment to people and an understanding of the issues involved.