The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Small family or the two-child norm?

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Sunday, Sep 26, 2004

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Opinion - News Analysis

Small family or the two-child norm?

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 25. In the wake of the raging controversy on the inclusion of the two-child norm in the population programme, the Central Government has stated that it is "against coercion, incentives and targets''.

The reiteration of this philosophy last week was suited to the occasion — the release of the State of World Population Report, 2004, which reviewed the population and development goals set by the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994. India was one of the signatories to the target-free, non-incentives/disincentives approach that was set at the ICPD conference.

At the same function, the Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Anbumani Ramadoss, declared that the controversial two-child norm Bill for MPs and MLAs — first introduced in 1972 in the Rajya Sabha — was "still alive'' and could come up in Parliament in any of the coming sessions. The Bill is awaiting political consensus and among the parties opposed to it are the Left parties who are now supporting the ruling alliance.

The contradiction in the Government statements reflects the confusion in the approach. For all practical purposes, to accelerate achievement of the Total Fertility Rate (or replacement level of fertility) of 2.1 by 2010, the Central Government is known to be toying with the idea of facilitating "two safe deliveries and a quality procedure for sterilisation''. But for public consumption, the approach is "against incentives or disincentives and coercion'' and for "voluntary sterilisation''. The new approach is also directed towards the "Below Poverty line Population'' (BPL) linking higher population growth to poverty.

At the press conference to release the World Population Report, when he was asked about several State Governments taking a stand contrary to the Centre on population, Mr. Ramadoss said: "How can they?'' On further reflection he said he would convene a meeting of State Ministers on this.

However, there have been umpteen missives sent from his predecessors' desk to the States without any perceptible amendments brought about. It is therefore important for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to sort it out within its alliance partners first.

The UPA's National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) calls for a "sharply focussed family control programme'' on the lines of Tamil Nadu where the Government is said to have helped private doctors to set up facilities for conducting safe deliveries and sterilisation procedures. The Centre proposes to ask banks to provide loans to doctors and insurance companies for indemnity insurance against doctors being taken to consumer courts for failure of procedure or post-operative complications.

With money as an incentive at several rungs of the scheme — for doctors, the Trained Birth Attendant, the "sakhi'' who would counsel and bring in women and finally the woman — questions are being raised on whether this ambitious scheme is not profit-oriented and based on incentives and disincentives, despite a posturing to the contrary.

Biggest votary

The previous NDA Government was gradually veering towards a two-child norm which formally found expression at the recent conclave of BJP Chief Ministers. The Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, is the biggest votary of this approach. As Rajasthan Chief Minister, he was in the forefront of adopting a State Policy that called for a two-child norm for government functionaries. Other States that have taken a similar route include Maharashtra, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. But probably what gave the two-child norm its momentum under the NDA was a Supreme Court decision last July that upheld Haryana's two-child norm policy for all communities.

The proposed and pending Constitution (Seventy-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 1992, as the central legislation called, seeks to disqualify a person for being a member of either House of Parliament or the Legislative Assembly or if he/she has more than two children with prospective effect.

The Bill has been opposed by several NGOs and women's groups on the ground that it targets women and would encourage female foeticide, which is already rampant in some of the States that have adopted the two-child norm.

Instead they prefer strengthening the delivery system and provision of enabling atmosphere for lowering infant and maternal mortality rates.

Integrated approach

For an integrated approach to population stabilisation that includes health, education, nutrition, water and sanitation, the previous Government had set up a National Population Commission under the Prime Minister with more than 100 public luminaries as members. Initially the Commission had a corpus of Rs. 100 crores. But gradually, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare devoured the fund saying there was over-lap in the functions. And now, the Commission has become a toothless, almost defunct body.

With such a flip-flop in approach, and the country's population racing towards 186 crores in 2050, there is need for a larger, vigorous, all-inclusive national debate in the country on the two-child norm.

Religious leaders and male populations need to be taken into confidence on the pressing need for population stabilisation.

India cannot afford to wait. Nor can it afford a further decline in the female sex ratio.

It has been shown the world over — as well in some States in India — that whenever services are available and awareness created for people to know the benefits of a smaller size family, they have always opted for it.

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Small family or the two-child norm?