Population Control:

5th July, 2021 Society

Context:

The government in Assam, eyeing a two-child policy in the long run, has decided to constitute eight sub-groups toward stabilising the State’s population.

Each group would work in specific sectors such as health, education, financial inclusion and women empowerment, besides population stabilisation.
“The inputs of these sub-groups will help in preparing a five-year road map.

Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is 2.2 — slightly higher than the replacement level of 2.1, the state when a couple is replaced by two children.
Twenty-five out of 28 states and six out of eight UTs and most urban areas report a replacement TFR of 2.1 and less.
The wanted fertility in India as per NFHS (National Family Health Survey) IV is only 1.8.
Census figures also show that the 2001-2011 decade was the first in 100 years where a lesser population was added compared to the decade preceding it.

The increased acceptance of contraceptives is just one of the factors for the decline of TFR.
Significant rise in the married women ages have also led to the decline in the total fertility rates.
Improvement in the education status of the population along with the economic living has also contributed in decline of total fertility rates.

International experience shows that any coercion to have a certain number of children is counter-productive and leads to demographic distortions”.

The burden of planning a family falls almost entirely on Indian women. According to the NFHS-4, in 2015-16, 36% of married women in the ages of 15-49 years underwent sterilisation as against less than 1% of married men aged 15-54 years.
There is a large need for contraception among married women, and contraception choices for couples are limited.
Women’s well-being has not been fully assured. In November 2014, 16 young women tragically died and many were left critically ill following tubectomies at a mass sterilisation camp in Bilaspurdistrict, Chhattisgarh.

Kerala and Tamil Nadu have shown what needs to be done: ensure the provision of basic services, promote girls’ schooling and improve development opportunities for
Southern governments proactively urged families to have only two children, followed by female sterilisation immediately thereafter.

Government has stated in Supreme Court:

It was ‘unequivocally’ against setting limits on the number of children couples could have in a bid to ‘control’ population.
Family Welfare Programme is voluntary in nature, which enables couples to decide the size of their family and adopt the family planning methods best suited to them, according to their choice, without any compulsion.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has projected that India’s TFR will drop to 1.3 by 2100.
India need to get rid of misconceptions about vasectomies and links to virility.
India need to prioritise women’s agency, giving them the ability to choose if, when, and how many children they want.
State governments must lead health sector reforms in a “suitable and sustainable manner”.
Encouraging male participation in housework, improving their ability to combine work and family, and improving family planning services will make TFR stabilise around 1.7.

TFR is defined as the total number of children to be born to women in her lifetime by the current age specific fertility rates.
When the TFR touches 2.1, which is called replacement fertility level, one can say that the population is getting stabilised, subject to the momentum factor.