Population Control Is A Good Slogan, But India's 'Desire For A Son' May Just Kill 'Beti Bachao'

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day address, Indians have been discussing measures to control population. Social media is abuzz with posts and TV studios are echoing the opinions of various prominent personalities on the issue. And why not, the PM himself called the "need to worry about population explosion.¡±

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But there is more than what meets the eye:

While a section of the Opposition and some Muslim clerics have alleged that a legislation on these lines will be used to target the minority community specifically, there should, however, have been an agreement of sorts among all parties on the principle of the need to control population.

But we are far from it and the reasons, though not discussed widely, are revealing.

Consider this: India¡¯s annual population growth rate between 2001-2011 was 1.64 per cent, according to 2011 census. But the World Bank data points out that India¡¯s population growth rate has decreased from 1.73 per cent in 2001 to 1.04 per cent in 2018.

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Further as per the Economic Survey of 2018-19, which was conducted by the Department of Economic Affairs, it was found out that the annual growth rate was 1.3 per cent in 2011-2016. This also showed that the population growth rate in 12 states was less than even 1 per cent.

States such as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Bihar which have high fertility states too have shown significant decline in their growth rates.

So what does this mean?

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The crux of what emerges from multiple data sources such as those mentioned above point out that while India's total population is undoubtedly increasing, it's population growth rate has actually shown a declining trend for quite some time now.

Population growth is not a problem faced by India alone but several countries around the world have been facing it and studying the data to implement laws that may help tackle this crisis. Further, southern states are perturbed by this call for a "national scheme" to control population explosion because they believe that the problem is entirely in the north. Data supports their claim.

Does India need such a law? May be. But the question is do we need a hasty law or do we need a mechanism to understand the situation in its totality before implementing such a legislation?

The latter seems more promising because any hasty law to curb population growth will directly hamper one of the flagship schemes of the ruling government -- Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, which is aimed to address the declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and related issues of women empowerment over a life-cycle continuum.

Here's how:

Population control and women rights are inter-related and they cannot be looked at separately, particularly in a country driven by patriarchal norms such as our's.

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Consider this: As per the National Health Mission Financial Management Report 2016-17, Rs 577 crore was spent on family planning in 2016-17. But of the Rs 577 crore, as much as 85 per cent was spent on female sterilisation and only 2.8 per cent on male sterilisation. This poses a serious question: If there is a nationwide legislation to control population, how are the Indian authorities going to strike a balance between men and women?

Sterilisation against will is more prevalent among women than men as the former do not still have a say in the matters concerning them in most rural parts of north India.

But there's another problem too and that is more serious.

A legislation to curb population will directly hamper India's worsening sex ratio because decreasing fertility rates have already proven that when a family decides to have fewer children, preference is given to boys.

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Gender bias is not just a part of the "intellectual debate" in our country. The reason that it's debated vigorously is simply because we are still a largely biased society where women do not enjoy equal rights.

The data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2015-16 suggests that a family that is "blessed" with a son is more likely to stop having children than those in which a girl is the first-born.

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¡ª Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 11, 2014

So, when we talk of population explosion, we should also talk of the role that the desire for a male child has had in it. There is a need to check the "male biased sex ratios," son-preference and the advent of sex determination technologies before any measure to curb population if we really care about "Beti Bachao Beti Padhao" because when there are no #Betis, whom are we going to save and whom are we going to educate?