NEW DELHI: The Center has told the Supreme Court that India is about to achieve a replacement level of the fertility rate of 2.1 through various voluntary birth control measures and rejected suggestions to adopt the coercive model of birth control. China’s population, saying such methods cause demographic distortions.
Presentations from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare came in response to PIL the petitioner Ashwini Upadhyay, who had asked that they “be in good health; social, economic and political justice; freedom of thought, expression and belief, faith and worship; and equal status and opportunities, a population control law, based on the Chinese model, is urgently required.
Upholding the strict application of the nearly half-century-old family planning slogan “hum do, hamare do,” Upadhyay had called the population explosion in India a leading cause of poverty, criminal activity and distorted development. He had requested instructions from the SC from the government to draft a law on population control and family planning.
The ministry said: “India is unequivocally against coercion in family planning.” Analyzing the Chinese model, suggested by the petitioner, he said: “In fact, international experience shows that any coercion to have a certain number of children is counterproductive and leads to demographic distortion.”
‘India on the verge of reaching a total fertility rate of 2.1 by 2025’
This is indeed the case, as China’s population graph shows an imbalance between younger people of working age and older people who need social benefits like pensions and health care, he said.
The ministry said that India is on the verge of achieving a total fertility rate (average number of children that would be born to a woman in her lifetime) of 2.1 by 2025, as set out in the 2000 National Population Policy. and through the guidance provided in the National Health Policy of 2017. “India is witnessing a constant decrease in TFR, which was 3.2 in 2000 compared to 2.2 in 2018. The fertility rate desired is only 1.8, which indicates that couples on average do not want more than two children. ”
“As many as 25 of the 36 states / TU have already reached the replacement fertility level of 2.1 or less. According to the Census, 2001-11 is the first decade is the last 100 years that has not only added a smaller population compared to the previous one, but also registered the most pronounced decrease in the decennial growth rate, of 21.5% in 1991-2000 to 17.6% in 2001-11 ”, he said.
However, 146 districts in seven states – UP (57), Bihar (37), Rajasthan (14), Madhya Pradesh (25), Chhattisgarh (2), Jharkhand (9) and Assam (2) – have shown TFR of 3 or plus. . These seven states represent 44% of the country’s population. The Center listed a dozen schemes that are being implemented to achieve a replacement fertility rate of 2.1 by 2025, and interestingly, the government gave credit to five schemes announced by UPA-II led by Manomhan Singh.
“At present, India is knocking on the door to achieve the replacement level of fertility and has made a remarkable improvement in reducing maternal and infant mortality,” the government said.
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