Encyc Lopedia Information on India  

A Map of India  

Census of India  

The United Nations Development Programme in India  

Cash Sop for Family Planning: No-Scalpel Vasectomy.   February 12, 2006  
The government has launched a no-scalpel vasectomy camp. The state health department has got good response in two districts where the camps are already over. All those undergoing the operation will be given Rs 250 as bonus, besides free medicines worth Rs 45. Those who bring in the person to get the operation will also be given Rs 40 as a mark of encouragement. In Bokaro, as many as 239 persons have done NSV in the three-day camp. In Ranchi, the response was tremendous. The operation does not involve use of scalpel, therefore there are no stitches. It takes 10 minutes and the person can resume work after two days and start normal sex after three days of the operation, but with condoms. He need not use a condom after three months or 20 ejaculations, whichever is earlier. There are no side effect. This is a new technique started in China. By a special pointed forceps a tiny hole is made above the scrotum and within two days the hole heals itself. At present, there are 32 surgeons performing the operation in the state, which took up the technique last year.  rw

$2500 Car Raises Tough Questions.   January 20, 2008   Sympatico MSN Finance
Recently introduced by India's Tata, the Nano costs $2,500 and promises to improve the quality of life for the thousands of Indians who are starting to form a growing middle-class.

Up to five people can fit into a Nano - although there's no air conditioning, radio, power steering or electric windows. But it gets about 54 miles to the gallon.

As countries like India and China continue to post strong economic growth, individuals begin to prosper and the demand for cars begins to take shape.

Some have denounced the Nano as a source of further CO2 emissions in an over-polluted country. Why not invest in more public transport, instead of putting hundreds of thousands of cheap little cars on the roads of India?

But why should they not be entitled to the same conveniences that we take for granted?

There are about 18.5 million vehicles registered in Canada for a population of 32 million. The US has .8 vehicles per person.

We use around 53 billion litres of gas or diesel fuel. The governments we have elected have made limited progress with the formulation of a comprehensive environmental policy. Telling voters that they have to tighten their belts is never considered a popular tactic at the polls.

There's no question that people in India and China are as entitled to the consumer comforts that we've enjoyed for so long. The question is whether they'll learn from our mistakes - or merely be the victims of them.  rw

India Heading for 2 Billion Population.   January 02, 2008   People and Planet website
India's population will almost certainly be near 1.8 billion by 2050 and could top 2 billion by the end of this century unless fertility rates decline more rapidly in India's largest and poorest states.

The possibility of India becoming the only country ever to have 2 billion people depends on the course of events in each of India 35 states and Union territories.

India passed the 1 billion population benchmark in 2000, and stood at 1.1 billion in 2007. The government has been concerned about population growth outpacing economic growth, and India was the first country to adopt a policy to slow population growth. Since the policy was first stated in 1952, the country's total fertility rate has declined from about six children per woman to about three, but fertility levels vary greatly throughout India.

The decline has been greater in its southern states, which have much higher rates of literacy and education. The southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu now have TFRs below two children per woman.

The large states of the north, the "Hindi Belt," are where about 40% of Indians live. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, with about 93 million and 188 million people, currently have a TFR of about 4.3 children per woman.

The state and Union territory populations were projected under two scenarios. One assumed that states with a current TFR above "two children" would decrease to 2.1 and then remain constant. The other assumed the TFR decline would continue until it reached 1.85 children per woman.

The first scenario results in a population that would reach two billion in 2066-2071. By 2101, four states, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh would account for almost half of the country's population. Scenario B does not reach two billion, growth peaks in 2081-2086, after which it decreases.

This state-based projection series uses national fertility rates and age structures, and PRB (Population Reference Bureau) believes it provides a more realistic scenario. The population projected for Uttar Pradesh ranges from 353 million to 364 million by 2051, and between 414 million and 480 million by 2101. The projected 2101 total for India ranges from 1.9 billion to 2.2 billion, depending on the assumptions for each state.  rw

The Future Population of India: a Long-range Demographic View.   October 09, 2007   Population Reference Bureau
Two scenarios of India's future population assume that fertility will decline continuously to the point where couples average two children each, the goal of India's National Population Policy 2000. One scenario assumes that states with higher current fertility will decline to the "replacement level" of 2.1 children. The second assumes that the decline will continue to 1.85 children, near the level observed in states such as Kerala. The first scenario results in an India of two billion population while the second and results in eventual population decline. Follow the link to the PDF and the complete article.  rw

India;: Ways to Tackle Maternal Mortality.   January 10, 2007   Telegraph
To check the maternal mortality rate in India, health experts have stressed changing the traditional treatment being practiced in villages.

Gynaecologists advocated the need to adopt advanced strategies practiced in some of the countries in Africa.

Lack of access of health care facilities are responsible for maternal deaths. Facilities in remote areas of countries like India have no specialist doctors and advanced treatment facilities.

Non-specialist doctors do major surgeries and fail to diagnose complications. Children's health is directly related to mother's health. We should introduce advanced facilities in our villages.  rw

India's Education Standards Must Reach Global Level.   December 15, 2006   The Hindu
India should improve the standard of higher education and give greater attention to research Institutions. Beijing University is one of the top 20 universities in the world; there are no Indian universities among the top 100. How can you sustain knowledge-based economy without top research universities?

The coalition politics in India has also led to caste politics. While a small section of society has become richer, a large section remains poor.

Despite hurdles, the Indian manufacturing sector recorded a growth of 10% per annum with satisfactory growth in trade and services sectors. India has to develop micro-insurance to help its farmers. Water would be one of the main problems India would face in the future. India is one of the most modern and ancient nations on earth.

Its economy is growing at a rate of over eight per cent a year, propelling its massive population with economic might and geopolitical clout.

India's democracy is a source of comparative economic advantage and a unifying ideal, but corruption is rife in Indian politics and public administration.

Corruption is a key reason why India's infrastructure is in such a poor state.  rw
Karen Gaia says: No mention of overpopulation.

Oxfam: Political Will Lacking to Provide Essential Services.   October 23, 2006   Indian Express
An Oxfam report asked for "free and universal" services like primary education and healthcare. This view is controversial as the government has been moving towards rationalising public services in India. The report is critical of India's inability to supply adequate medical services. "Every half an hour six nameless Indian women die in childbirth," said the report. The high costs of medicine for the poor also deterred many from seeking medical treatment.

Other problems are, 70% of the population is lacking access to toilets, 170 million have no clean drinking water and a primary school dropout rate of 38%. Health problems are exacerbated by a gender bias. A girl in India is 50% more likely to die before her fifth birthday than her brother. A plan called for school dropout rates to fall 20% and maternal mortality by 75%, to 1 death per 1,000 births by 2012.

Sri Lanka is an example of a developing country that has achieved universal free schooling, drastically reduced infant mortality rates and boosted life expectancy. Bangladesh was also praised for achieving equality in school enrollment between boys and girls.  rw

India's Population Reality: Reconciling Change and Tradition.   September 25, 2006   Population Reference Bureau
While India is an emerging economic power,it's life remains largely rooted in its villages. Only a small fraction of Indians are benefiting from the country's
expanding industrial and information sectors.

Few countries are as complex as India, that remains an essentially rural country steeped in centuries-old social and religious traditions. In its cities, large proportions of the population live in slums. Progress
has been remarkable, if uneven, particularly in light of its vast population. Agricultural production quadrupled in the 1960s and 1970s which, with expanded transportation and communications, have made famines nearly obsolete. But almost 50% of Indian children are malnourished although the health care system has raised life expectancy at birth to 63 from less than 40 in 1950. But less than half of births are attended by skilled health personnel, and maternal mortality is still high.

India's population growth awoke as progress was made against disease and hunger to 1 billion in 2000. Slowing this growth became a national priority, and India can count many successes. But India's social diversity has resulted in very different demographic situations. High fertility in the Hindi Belt compared with below-replacement fertility in Kerala. India's future population size will depend upon what happens in the heavily populated north. Will India become the world's first population of 2 billion? It is well within possibility and is one of India's most compelling future issues.

To stress the size of India's population, just one group, Indian boys
below age 5, numbers 62 million - more than the total population of France.  rw

India;: Drop in Child Mortality Rate in Five States.   September 05, 2006   Zee News
The proportion of children dying in the first year of life has dropped in the last seven years in Maharashtra, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Punjab and gains in immunisation coverage have been in Chattisgarh and Orissa. However, there has been deterioration in full immunisation coverage in the last seven years in Maharashtra, Pubjab and Gujarat due to decline in vaccination coverage for DPT and polio. Diarrhoea is a major health issue for children. Many adults suffer from nutritional deficiencies in the urban areas and atleast one in five women is obese. There has been an improvement in the nutritional status of young childen.

Fertility continued to decline as a result of increased use of contraception and increase in the age of marriage.

Institutional births have been increasing in all states except Chhattisgarh, where there has been only a slight increase in the last seven years. The five states showed the proportion of married women report that they had been abused by their husbands and women with no education are most likely to have suffered spousal violence.

Between 1998 and 2006, the percentage of married women who have heard of AIDS increased from 20 to 41% in Chhattisgarh, from 30% to 49% in Gujarat, from 39% to 62% in Orissa, from 55% to 70% in Punjab and from 61% to 79% in Maharashtra.

Men are more likely to have heard of AIDS. Two-thirds of men in Chhattisgarh and more than 90% in Maharashtrta and Punjab have heard of AIDS. For the first time NFHS-3 will be providing community based HIV prevalence estimates for all India and Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Manipur, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.  rw

India: Achieving Family Planning Goals with 'Cycle Beads'.   September 20, 2005   Press Trust of India
What the 'nasbandi' of the 70's and the family planning drives could not achieve, doctors are trying to accomplish through a simple colour-coded set of beads. Called the Standard Days Method (SDM), it uses colour beads to identify fertile and non-fertile days and plan spacing between pregnancies. The method has been developed by American researchers and is being used in nearly 25 countries. In a country like India, where 78% of pregnancies are unplanned and nearly 25% unwanted, it can serve as an inexpensive, and 95% per cent effective method of preventing pregnancy. The Indian government has included it in the Reproductive Child Health programme for expanding contraceptive choices and this simple, method should be made widely accessible.  rw

Water-Scarce India, Too, Weighs a Return to Ancient Practices.   August 20, 2005   International Herald Tribune
Monsoon pits have all but disappeared from India abandoned in a shift from local water management to a government effort to smooth the fickle rains into a steadier, source of livelihood. Centralization has worked in delivering assured irrigation and helping to convert India's agriculture from a net importer to a net exporter. But effort to make water less capricious is making water scarce. We have no natural process to replenish the water being consumed. In 1955, India had more than 5,000 cubic meters, of freshwater per person. By 2013, the figure is expected to fall below 1,700 cubic meters. By 2025, it could fall below the line for "water scarcity." Look down a rural well that would yield water at 10 meters in the 1960s now require digging ten times deeper. "There will be constant competition over water" said a recent UNICEF report. Beginning with British colonial rule, India has centralized water management to spread irregular monsoons rains more evenly - building dams and canals, storing rainwater in reservoirs, and even freighting water by railcar. Twenty million electric pumps suck water from government-financed irrigation systems. Farms fed by irrigation are seven times more productive than farms fed by rain. The rural economy sustains two-thirds of India's population, with agriculture absorbing more than 90% of India's useable water. The decisive moment came in the 1960s, when famine prompted the adoption of miracle seeds that provided massive improvements in farm yields. The new crops required a massive expansion of irrigation, encouraged by free or subsidized electricity. Meanwhile, agencies had responded to the crippling drought of 1966 and 1967 by starting a program to cover rural India with hand pumps that extracted drinking water from underground and supported a rising population. Today, with India's economy flourishing the pressures on the water supply are growing more acute. Experts suggest that the notion that water is abundant and a birthright, and the conviction that a national, government-sponsored solution is more effective - must change. One solution is to price water at what it is worth, factoring in social costs like pollution. Critics worry that water could fall out of reach for the hundreds of millions of Indians living in poverty. More specific proposals include reconfiguring factories to reuse cooling water, filtering effluent to avoid contaminating the groundwater; and using less water-intensive processes for making paper. All would need significant investment, and none is likely to be implemented unless the government intervenes. Conservationists say India must return to households and villages catching their own rainwater.  rw

India: Talk Sex, State Board to Schools.   August 14, 2005   Times of India
Hetal Patel, in her early teens, feared she may get pregnant because she had kissed a boy. Kshitij Verma was concerned that he would become weak if he masturbated often. The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSB) is now hoping to change that by a specially designed project, The Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health (ARSH) programme, targeting students of class VIII, IX and XI across 15 schools that will cover subjects ranging from menstruation to condom. Once successful, it will be extended to all schools. Ten states were chosen for the pilot programme, that includes explanation through models, seminars, group discussions and lectures. The pilot project would also include lectures on safe sex practices. There are a number of issues related to reproductive health of girls that are seldom addressed. Apart from physical changes, girls undergo emotional turmoil. Various cultural and media influences have brought tremendous changes in the behaviour of teenagers these days. Children need to be told about the seriousness of the entire issue.  rw

New Pregnancy Kit Makes Asia Jittery.   August 12, 2005   Asia Pacific Post
A new blood test enables expectant mothers to find the gender of their baby as early as five weeks into the pregnancy. Experts feel the test will fuel trends in Asia, especially India and China where the number of boys born each year is far beyond the natural ratio of about 105 boys to every 100 girls. Those governments have tried to crack down on labs that specialize in sex determination but have had little success. The Baby Gender test kit, which can be bought online at pregnancystore.com, has two pregnancy tests and a kit for collecting and sending a blood sample to a Massachusetts laboratory. The kit costs US$25, and the lab charges US$250 for processing and emails the confidential results within 48 hours. The sample is tested for the presence of the Y chromosome, which indicates a male. If there is no Y chromosome, the embryo is female. The test does not need federal approval because it is not used as a diagnostic tool. Dr Parvin Singh from Panjab, India said "We have a problem in the community about gender selection and this will just fuel the problem." Bioethicists question whether the new technology will be used as a tool for sex selection, prompting a woman to abort her fetus if she doesn't approve of its gender. If you sell the test in India, China or the Philippines, that's a problem. Ending a pregnancy early is easier to do than at 20 weeks. The test is just the beginning in using DNA testing to gain information about embryos. What if you find out the baby will have a high risk of depression, or obesity, or will have red hair? If it's not to detect a disease, you shouldn't be doing it. At present, the test is available only in the United States. A recent UNPF report said the practice of gender selection is widespread in India, where affluent parents are killing tens of thousands of fetal girls per year. An anti-girl bias and the killing of girl babies has been common among India's poor and working class for decades, but new figures show that in the heart of New Delhi - where some of India's richest and the best-educated live - the ratio of girls to boys showed the sharpest fall. Fewer than 900 girls were born in New Delhi, and in Bombay, for every 1,000 boys. New Delhi's rich southwest region had the lowest ratio 845 girls per 1,000 boys in the newborn-to-6-year-old group. In Ahmedabad, Gujarat one of the most industrialized states there were 814 girls per 1,000 boys ages up to 6. According to a 2001 census, the overall birthrate for India was 927 girls per 1,000 boys, a steady decline from 945 girls per 1,000 boys in 1991 and 962 in 1981. As a result of abortions or killing girls in infancy, up to 5 million baby girls "disappear" from India every year. The government is displaying posters featuring images of little girls with messages like: "I am yours. Do not kill me." But the fact is that, in most cases, the decision to abort a female fetus is made by the husband or his parents. The report said the sex ratios were most equal among Christian and Muslim Indians, and most tilted in favor of boys among Hindus and Sikhs. Muslims and Christians follow their religion more strictly, and they are basically against the killing of any fetus. Female fetacide is banned in Sikhism, yet this form of sexual discrimination exists among the Sikhs. A son is an extra pair of hands to earn income. Girls, who need a dowry to attract a husband, are viewed as economic and social burdens. Grooming a girl, an Indian maxim says, is like watering a neighbor's garden. Discrimination against women permeates every level of Indian society. Soon many men will not find brides. The methods used in rural areas to kill unborn or newborn girls are varied and shocking. In cities and rural areas sex-determination tests have been banned in India since 1994, yet the ultrasound centers flourish openly often by bribing corrupt officials. At the request of clients willing to pay more to have sons, some modern fertility clinics in India produce male babies using the technology of selective sperm separation. The desire for boys transcends caste, social, educational and economic status. A similar situation exists in China where Beijing has made the selective abortion of female foetuses a criminal offence and will ban parents from obtaining ultrasound scans to discover their unborn baby's sex. 119 boys are born in China for every 100 girls. The government takes it as an urgent task to correct the gender imbalance of newborns. The move coincides with a national programme to exempt girls from school fees and give housing, employment and welfare privileges to one-daughter families. The governor of Hainan where in some schools boys outnumber girls by three to one introduced a provincial law making it possible to jail for five years anyone caught giving or receiving a scan for sex selection but this has not resulted in a single arrest.  rw

India: Urbanisation Or Economic Growth?.   July 28, 2005   Financial Express
Rapid urbanisation had been taking place in many parts of the developing world. At a United Nations University's World Institute for Development Economics Research's Jubilee Conference there was a need to study this much-neglected aspect of development. Overall (GDP) growth cannot be separated from the delivery of public services or strategies to improve them. Urbanisation grows faster after the proportion of urban population has reached 25%. In India, urbanisation has now reached 29%. Economic reforms and globalisation have made cities primary engines of economic growth. Urban areas contribute close to half of India's GDP. The more urbanised states in India (Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat) recorded higher growth rates. Cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Chennai have grown rapidly. However, the incidence of urban unemployment is much higher than that of rural unemployment, as reported in the 59th round of the National Sample Survey Organisation(NSSO). There were 14 urban persons unemployed (by principal and subsidiary activity) per 1,000 in 2003, compared with only five for rural India. Other reports compiled from NSSO data show that most urban employment (33.5%) is in production-related work, which means the service sector boom continues to elude urban areas. With the increasing incidence of frauds, the reliability of outsourcing and call centre jobs is uncertain, suggesting that the sustainability of the service sector is questionable. The answer may lie with the manufacturing sector. Cities, by offering good quality public services, attract residents with skills, which in turn attract jobs. Currently, states with high urban unemployment (e.g Jharkhand) are those that are unable to attract residents with skills (e.g, those with engineering degrees) because of their poor quality public services, and limited opportunities for jobs and growth. The experience with the private sector world-wide has shown that wherever governance is weak, privatisation of essential public services results in serious problems, including raising costs and reduced access and quality for the less well-off.

India: No Coercion in Population Policy, Says Manmohan Singh.   July 24, 2005  
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India said any coercive measure for achieving population stabilisation was unacceptable. The Government's approach to fertility reduction would be through focusing on elimination of poverty, empowerment of women and choices in limiting the family size. The Prime Minister directed that a Task Force be set up for micro-planning in five demographically weak States of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Orissa which constitute 40% of the population. The Task Force would take up the programme under the leadership of these States, which have a Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of above four. It would work to invest more in health infrastructure for reduction in maternal and infant mortality rates. Emphasising that the National Population Policy of 2000 was for target-free, voluntary and informed choice and against any coercion because such measures had only a marginal impact and may even cause resentment. He stressed the need for an annual survey of the districts of the States having high fertility rate and where the National Rural Health Mission is being implemented to ensure that the benchmark of basic health infrastructure was created.  rw

32 percent of urban population resides in 43 towns
  July 16, 2005  
Of the 285 million people who lived in 5,161 urban settlements in 2001, 74 million, i.e. about one-quarter, lived in 27 `million plus towns'.

Actually, the number of such towns is just 22 if one aggregates figures for adjoining townships such as Kolkata and Howrah, Delhi and Faridabad, Pune and Pimpri/Chinchwad and Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan.

Though in the absence of additional data, such as, income tax collections in various towns or motor vehicle registrations, it is hard to say what portion of total urban spend these 22 settlements account for, we may not be too far wrong in guessing that average household consumer expenditure in these 22 towns is, say, 2.5 times the Rs 56,000 figure reported by NSS for all urban households in 2003.

Apart from allowing us to cut down the number of million plus cities from 27 to 22, a look at Census 2001 data in its totality also allows us to identify another 21 towns with population size ranging from 7,00,000 to just under 1 million (there were four such towns in 2001, Allahabad, Amritsar, Vishakapatnam and Rajkot, all of which have probably crossed the 1 million mark by now).

Taken together these 43 towns, less than one per cent of the total, account for 32 per cent of India's total urban population. The 21 `million-minus' towns added to the earlier 22, too, probably spend rather more per household per year than do the remaining 5,118 census towns.

In mapping out marketing strategy to reach consumers in urban areas, for boosting sales of FMCGs, durables, banking, insurance and mutual funds, the best thing to do would probably be to focus on these 43 towns, plus the 25-30 key towns such as Mangalore and Kochi that have a population of around half a million each, and treat the remaining Census towns as being simply feeders for rural markets.

India: Women Demand Withdrawal of Two-Child Norm.   July 12, 2005   Press Trust of India
Women activists of the People's Health Forum demanded from the Maharashtra government to withdraw its two child norm and the discriminatory clauses in the Act to provide health services to women. The government introduced two child norm to penalise and prevent those who have more than two children from contesting Panchayat elections. They alleged that in several hospitals of the city there was coercion in enforcing sterilisation on women and denial of maternal care, to women who have more than two children. The state government should provide to a vast majority of women adequate access to safe and appropriate reproductive health services, improved services for child survival and the freedom to make fertility choices. They also demanded to withdraw criteria included in the irrigation policy by charging a discriminatory higher fee for water facilities to farmers who have more than two children.  rw

India's Population Seen as An Asset Rather Than Liability.   July 11, 2005   Agence France-Presse
Experts Believe India's billion plus population is being increasingly regarded as an asset that could drive economic growth. With 2.4% of the global land mass housing 16% cent of the global population, successive governments have been faced with the problem of reducing pressure on ever-dwindling resources. Now its massive workforce is seen as the country's greatest resource. Over the last decade India has emerged as a major back office with global firms outsourcing work to take advantage of the country's educated, English-speaking workforce. India produces 2.5 million Information Technology (IT) graduates a year, plus 650,000 in science and related subjects. The IT sector employs about 850,000 professionals while the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors are snapping up others. The government says 402 million Indians are aged between 15 and 59, and that this number will grow to 820 million by 2020. Economists advocate increased investment in health infrastructure, education and sanitation to take advantage of its opportunities. India will also need to improve the lot of the 3% of its population below the poverty line. India's population growth rate has been declining from 24.6% in the decade 1971-81 to 21.3% during 1991 to 2001 and predicts population stabilization by 2015 or 2020.  rw
Unfortunately resources do not grow with the population!!!!

India: Preaching through the Mass Media.   June 21, 2005   Time of India
An Indian church is making a film that highlights dangers of unprotected sex. This is the first endeavor, by a religious institution, based on commercial Bollywood. The film stars Rati Agnihotri. Dr Sunita Krishnan, who runs Prajwala, an NGO fighting the cause of women and children says that religious bodies can help tremendously in raising community consciousness. Safe sex and family planning should be accepted. The movie, to be dubbed in regional languages including Tamil and Telugu, will rely mainly on the packaging. It's a sign that religious bodies are getting practical in their approach to a solution. It's a realistic take on the HIV problem that is spreading by the day. The people involved in the project comprises savants, who have researched the subject with international and national NGOs.  rw

India's Popular Soap Operas Become a National Soapbox.   June 10, 2005   Christian Science Monitor
The stars in one of India's popular soap operas sound more like activists than actors. It's the influential world of India's most popular soap opera, "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi." While it is usually a standard soap opera of family squabbles and female aspirations, the show is among a growing number that use their influence as a platform to educate middle-class women and housewives about social causes. It is hard to quantify how many Indians watch a show like "Kyunki". In much of rural India, the only thing available is the state-run television station that sticks to a diet of folk music, news shows, and travelogues. But in metro areas, cable is the only thing anybody watches and from 8 p.m., 6 of 10 households are tuned into soaps. The problem of childhood diarrhea is severe in India 550,000 deaths per year and is the second-leading cause of death for children under the age of 5 and every avenue for getting the word out is fair game. When you show a documentary, people just tune it out, but we've done a program about ORS [oral rehydration salts] before on 'Kyunki,' and people respond to it much better.  rw

India: Rajasthan Bid to Check Population Explosion.   June 02, 2005   Hindu (The)
Faced with serious challenges of high population and low health , Rajasthan will focus on checking the population explosion through awareness campaigns. As a first step Rajasthan could adopt the "awareness-oriented and non-coercive" concept that brought down the birth rate in Tamil from 28 per thousand to 19 per thousand between 1984 and 1994. Rajasthan is among the 18 focus States of the Rural Health Mission where health indicators need urgent attention. It has an infant mortality rate of 78 per thousand live births, total fertility rate of 3.9 per thousand, maternal mortality rate of 670 per lakh with just 24.9% children receiving immunization and only 46.3% women having safe deliveries. The population could touch 9 crores by 2020 as against the present 6 crores. The growth rate of 2% is "unmanageable", and delivery of facilities to remote areas is a challenge and expensive but the Government is committed to getting out of the (sick) States' list. Rs. 264 crores for Rajasthan for 2005-06 was announced earlier this week. Rajasthan could be the model for the rest of the country as far as implementation of the Mission is concerned. The major problem in Rajasthan was early marriages that resulted in the failure of family planning methods, as was the case in Tamil Nadu some decades ago.  rw

Old Tigers in India to Get Home.   May 23, 2005   BBC News
In India a special reserve for old tigers that are not able to hunt is being set up in the Sunderbans delta. This is meant to check India's falling population of tigers. Official estimates put India's tiger population at around 3,700 but it could be less than 2,000. The declining tiger population has become a controversy in India. A century ago, the country had 40,000 tigers. But hunting and poaching of tigers for their body parts - used in traditional Chinese medicines has brought the animal closer to extinction. The conservation officer for the Sunderban forest said sick and ageing tigers that could not fend for themselves would be brought to a rehabilitation centre like a natural habitat so that the animals don't feel they are in captivity," Mr Raha said. "This will not be a zoo or even a protected reserve. The centre would also treat injured and ailing tigers and release them back into the wild. The mangrove marshlands of the Sunderbans are one of the last surviving natural habitats of the tiger. The Sunderban forest measures nearly 10,000 sq km (3,860 sq miles). A tiger census showed only 275 tigers surviving in the Sunderbans which is also home to salt water crocodiles and rare river dolphins. The Indian Prime Minister set up a task force to review the management of reserves after reports that between 100 and 125 tigers are being killed each year.  rw

India: Population Control: Implementation is the Challenge.   April 07, 2005   Hindu (The)
The biggest challenge to population and health issues is implementation by States as health is a State subject since the Centre had given up targeted approach to population stabilisation. Several States followed the two-child norm - which promotes incentives and disincentives - with disastrous consequences including Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan. The Centre has not been able to prevail upon the States to do away with this distorted policy. A two-child norm has the potential to cause harm to women's health where son preference is high and women's status is low. It is believed that the two-child norm was derived from the one-child norm in China. But the decline in population growth rate took place before the one-child norm was introduced. The population growth continued to be high because a large population which was in the reproductive age group was contributing about 60% to growth, unmet need for contraception, high fertility and girls being married at a young age. The declining sex ratio of girl-child in the 0 to 6 age group is reported as Ahmedabad (822 per 1000 males), followed by Surat (827), Kanpur (855), Delhi (870), Jaipur (882), Pune (903), Lucknow (907), Greater Mumbai (919), Bangalore and Kolkata (941), Hyderabad (945), Chennai (967). The answer is in monitoring sex ratio at birth from Civil Registration Data.  rw
Not only is the policy out-data, but so is the term 'population control'. Today it is about voluntary family planning.

India: Good Governance Key to Population Stabilisation.   April 01, 2005   Tribune News Service
New Delhi called for an integrated approach for good governance to ensure population stabilisation. Currently India's population is 16.7% of the global population, is the second largest in the world and occupies 2.4% of the earth. The growth rate is 1.7% which implies that this burgeoning population has to be catered to, no mean task even for the most booming of economies. We need good governance and population stability to ensure sustainable growth. The Population Foundation of India has been doing outstanding work towards population stabilisation and establishing a balance among our resources, environment and population, universal primary health care, including reproductive and child health services, empowering women and involving communities. The is how to transform our human potential into high value added workforce raising the standards of living of the entire population. The most vital thing for us is to advance on the economic and social fronts. If we ignore this major economic or educational advance, we will be building on insecure foundations. Economic and educational progress is the foundation on which we can have effective progress in regard to family planning. The pressure on the limited resources of the country has brought to the forefront the urgency of population control.... It is apparent that this can be achieved only by the reduction of the birth rate to the extent necessary to stabilise the population at a level consistent with the requirements of the national economy. We should not take an alarmist view but try to transform our human potential into an asset. If we recognise the importance of participatory process as the key element of good governance, our policies and programmes for population stabilisation will find much wider acceptance and lead to better results.  rw

India: When Poverty Doesn't Count.   March 30, 2005   Deccan Herald
India's economic progress of the past decade or so is worth boasting about. GDP growth, foreign direct investment and currency reserves are at an all time high. Many people enjoy the luxuries of life, from designer clothes to expensive cars. The economic gain, however, is confined to urban areas, in the information technology and industrial sectors. Rural agriculture has lagged behind as the benefits of globalisation and technology have failed to trickle down to a great majority of Indians. There are more people in poverty today in India, than a decade ago. With population increasing at over 2 per cent per annum, or with 20-25 million more people each year in the country, can India expect to bring down the poverty level any time in the foreseeable future? According to the World Bank, 35% of the world's population lives on less than $1 per day, and more than 50%, on less than $2 per day. For the U.S. the poverty line for an individual at $9,500 per annum (which works out to $26 per day). On the other hand, India's measurement of poverty is caloric intake and its corresponding cost - 2,400 K-calories per day for an individual living in a rural area, and 2,100 K-calories for an urban individual. The Government assumes that only Rs 327 ($7.25) per month is needed for an individual living in a rural area to buy enough food to meet the required calories. This works out to less than Rs 11 ($0.25) per day per person. - one quarter of the World Bank's lower standard of $1 per day). India's Planning Commission estimated a few years ago that only 18% of the population was poor in 1999. Later, to be more realistic, the Indian Government its estimate to 35%. However, respected economists and statisticians in the year 2000 estimated the monthly income needed for a rural individual to consume 2,400 K-calories per day was not Rs 327 ($7.25) but Rs 567 ($12.60). At this income level, which amounts to Rs 19 ($0.42) or less per day, nearly 75% of the rural population is poor. Probably over 80% of the rural population (77 million) is below the World Bank's definition of $2 per day. None of these definitions take into account the cost of adequate housing, clothing, education, healthcare, and entertainment.

India: Sangrur Locals Allege Forced Sterilisation.   March 28, 2005   NDTV (India)
Hundreds of people from Punjab's Sangrur district have complained that they were forcibly sterilised and claim they went to hospital for treatment, and were operated upon without their knowledge. But the administration denies any knowledge of it. Sukhdev Singh was diagnosed with tuberculosis and referred to the civil hospital in Sangrur. But instead for getting treatment for TB, Sukhdev said he had a vasectomy without his knowledge. The government had organised a family planning camp in Sangrur recently, where the sterilisation procedures were carried out on 511 men and 300 women. But no one can be sure whether these were voluntary. The administration insists it knows nothing about forced sterilisations. Said Hassan Lal, DC, Sangrur. "If somebody comes with the complaint, I will take action. Certainly this will hamper the family welfare programme." Unscrupulous officials have been known to force these operations on unsuspecting villagers to fill the quota demanded by the government.  rw

India: Muslim Women Opting for Family Planning.   March 15, 2005   Hindustan times
More Muslim women across Bihar are opting for family planning and approaching state-run clinics and medical camps. Economic reasons and growing awareness propelled by education is credited with the change. Muslim leaders admit it is a major development for women who were until a few years ago shying away from even voicing their opinion on the subject. Most women breaking the earlier taboo are in the 22-35 year age group. Muslim women could not have thought of sterilisation until the 90s but the situation has changed now. Doctors and staff of health centres said the number of Muslim women going for family planning had increased in the last two to three years. But a large chunk of the Muslim population still views family planning as anti-Islam. The higher-income Muslims who have small families do not admit to practising family planning but the size of their family speaks for itself. In Bihar, the birth rate among Muslims is higher than among the general population. Muslims make up 16% per cent of the population of 83 million. In rural areas, only 10.8% of Muslim couples practise family planning compared to 22.9% among others. Almost half of Bihar's rural Muslims and 44.8% of urban Muslims are considered very poor.  rw

India World's Largest Nation by 2030, UN Says.   February 25, 2005   Agence France Presse
The UN's latest global population report predicted that India would reach 1.593 billion by 2050, while China will reach 1.392 billion. India will surpass China by 2030. India's fertility rate is over three children per woman while China's is about 1.7. The report also forecast that world population will hit 9.1 billion by 2050, with India and Pakistan seeing the biggest increases. But almost all of the growth will come in developing nations, and the overall increase is "inevitable" even though fertility rates in the developed world continue to plummet. In 15 nations mostly in Europe the birth rate has fallen below 1.3 children per woman. The U.S. increase is due to the continuing arrival of immigrants, who tend to have more children. Population is expected to triple in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Congo, the DRC, East Timor, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger and Uganda. The projections assume a decline in fertility from 2.6 children per woman to slightly more than 2 by 2050. The trend toward lower birth rates combined with longer life expectancy means that the world population will be getting older. Those more than 80 years old are believed to number around 86 million now and will soar to 394 million by mid-century.  rw

For India's Daughters, a Dark Birth Day.   February 09, 2005   Monitor, The(Uganda)
The oleander plant yields a deadly poison that is one of the methods use to kill newborn girls in a part of India notorious for female infanticide. The government has battled the practice for decades but India's gender imbalance has worsened with a rise in sex-selective abortions. Too many couples are electing to end a pregnancy if the fetus is female. The ratio among children up to the age of 6 is 927 girls per 1,000 boys. Infanticide is illegal and laws stop sex- selective abortions. But in some places, national rules don't overcome local religious and social customs. Dowry, the male seen as breadwinner, and societal pressure increase the antigirl bias. Government and the medical profession need to put more resources and political will into enforcing the laws. Legislation is stalled that would prohibit genetic-counseling facilities, clinics, and labs from divulging the sex of the fetus. But the proposal is opposed by medical groups who argue that technology used to monitor fetal health cannot be put under such scrutiny. Others, though, see abortion as a lucrative business that doctors do not want to curtail. Ultrasound testing is used to save 1 out of 20,000 fetuses and kill 20 out of every 100 because it reveals the baby is female. Only about 15% of abortions take place in hospitals, and about 11.2 million are performed each year off the record. In Salem district, signs posted in towns say "Pay 500 rupees and save 50,000 rupees later," a suggestion that aborting a female fetus now could save a fortune in wedding expenses. In Salem district, the Vellala Gounder community, owns most of the land and is intent on retaining property rights. Sons represent lineage; daughters relocate to their husbands' homes. Local women may refuse to nurse their female newborns but leave it to midwives or mothers-in-law to administer the oleander sap. Nearly 60% of girls born in Salem District are killed within three days of birth, not counting the abortions to ensure a girl baby won't be carried to term. Activists are improving the standing and self-image of women and a NGO works with rural women to discourage female feticide. Educating the new-generation girl and empowering her with the skills for economic independence is the long-term solution. Parents' preference for a boy derives from the belief that a son lighting his parents' funeral pyre will ensure that their souls ascend to heaven; that he will be a provider in their later years and preserve the family inheritance. A daughter is considered an economic burden. Some families borrow heavily to pay for the rituals prescribed for a girl ear-piercing, wedding jewelry, dowry, and presents for the groom's family on every Hindu festival. The Tamil Nadu government has started several programs. One urged families to hand over their baby girls to local officials, who saw that they were adopted by childless couples. Between May 2001 and January 2003, officials received 361 baby girls. Many women would abort rather than have a baby and give her up for adoption. Tamil Nadu's "Girl Protection" program opens a bank account in a girl's name at her birth, depositing between 15,000 and 22,000 rupees during her childhood, depending on the number of girls in the family. The only way to wipe out this evil is to educate a girl beyond eighth grade and encourage her to find her voice.  rw

USAID Launches Condom Program in Uttar Pradesh.   January 10, 2005   Indian Express
USAID joined hands with ICICI Bank to launch a Dual Protection Condom Programme in Uttar Pradesh. The message is that use of condoms not only prevents unwanted pregnancies but also protects from AIDS. The ultimate objective is to expand the network across other north Indian states including Uttaranchal, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, as well as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The marketing would integrate mass media, public relations and consumer activities to create demand. It would work with condom manufacturers to ensure availability. Leading condom manufacturers including Hindustan Latex, J.K. Ansell and TTK-LIG have joined the campaign. Planned events include cricket matches and intra-college activities as well as highlighting the benefits of using of condoms for dual protection.  rw

A Maternity Death Every Five Minutes in India.   December 06, 2004   The New Kerala
A woman in India dies delivering a baby every five minutes, a maternal mortality rate of 534 per 100,000 deaths. Experts pointed out that in Singapore the maternal mortality rate was five, compared to 800 in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Literacy plays a big role. In Kerala, which boasts 100% literacy, the rate is only 70. The budgetary allocation in the health sector should be increased from 0.5 to 5%. If attendants are trained and have knowledge of drugs, maternal mortality could be reduced in states like Jharkhand and Bihar. In large areas of these states, pregnant women are dependent on quacks and traditional midwives who have neither the knowledge nor equipment to deal with medical crises.  rw

India News Archive