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UP envisages drastic steps to arrest population growth

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Bursting with more than 170 million people, Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday announced its first population policy, which recommends drastic measures to arrest the population growth in India's most populous state.

Formally unveiled at a special function by Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta, it lays down that registration of marriage be made mandatory and that those marrying before the statutory age (18 for girls and 21 for boys) be barred from government jobs.

If the current rate of population growth persists, UP's population would touch 440 million in 2051, while the density per kilometre would go up from the present 578 to 1498.

"If nothing concrete is done to arrest this trend, the pressure on our resources - water, land, environment and energy - besides that on the infrastructure - education, health care, housing, transport facilities - would be backbreaking," the state chief minister pointed out.

Even more alarming is the sharp increase in the number of job seekers, from today's 40 million to 150 million.

The idea behind compulsory marriage registration is to prevent early marriages, says the policy. "Nearly 64 per cent of girls in UP are married off before they attain the prescribed minimum age. It not only contributes to the high fertility rate but also to the health hazards associated with early child bearing," an official spokesman pointed out. Registration of marriage requires that the couple declare their correct age.

Nearly 80 per cent of the people in the agrarian state live in the villages. The state would put even postmen and the 40,000 odd Ayurvedic, Unani and Homeopathic registered medical practitioners to good use in spreading awareness about the advantages of a small family. "Both postmen and RMPs exercise tremendous influence in the villages," the spokesman pointed out.

The state managed to bring down the average family size from 5 in 1992 to 4 in 1998. The new policy plans to bring it down to 2 by 2016. "Considering that the drop in the average family size from 6 to 5 took four long decades (1951 to 1991), the reduction to 4 in six years was praiseworthy," UP's Minister for Mother and Child Welfare Sardar Singh said.

The policy stresses on women's empowerment, a key factor in bringing down the fertility rate. Expressing concern at the declining involvement of men in population control, it suggests sustained campaigns to educate them about their responsibility in parenthood, inculcating the need for use of family planning methods. It hopes to spread awareness about sexually transmitted diseases as well as AIDS.

The policy stresses on the need for reducing the number of female dropouts after the primary level. "Better education will not only give them greater freedom to think and act but to also make themselves economically independent," remarked an official.

It advocates the need for enforcement of 30 per cent reservation for women not only in government jobs but also in issue of licences for fair price shops and other controlled goods.

Though there is a substantial increase in the knowledge of contraceptive methods, contraceptive use does not commensurate with the knowledge levels - it rose from 19.8 per cent in 1992-93 to 28 per cent in 1998-99. The new policy envisages an increase to 52 per cent by 2016.

The government is also hopeful of raising the annual sterilisation rate from 380,000 at present to 1 million by 2005 and to 1.3 million by 2009. Along with this, infant mortality rate is to be brought down (from 85 per thousand in 1997) to 61 per thousand by 2016.

Significantly, all these demographic objectives are to be achieved with a 'target-free approach', that was first adopted by the government as late as in 1996.

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