On the eve of the World Population Day, Centre for
Health and Social Justice along with the National Coalition against Coercive
Population Policies, National Alliance for Maternal Health and Human Rights and
Human Rights Law Network organised a Media Dialogue on July 10, 2013.
The media dialogue brought together a panel of
parliamentarians, health and human rights advocates and senior media persons who
questioned if government’s population policies had changed over time and sought
to advocate with them for the need to address contemporary population issues
and bring in new perspectives into these discussions.
In the plenary session
chaired by Mr. A.R. Nanda, former Secretary of the Department of Family Welfare,
GOI focused on the need for a more
comprehensive and far less coercive mechanism then the currently followed
Expected Level of Achievement (ELA) which is still a target approach followed
by all the states. He stressed the need
for a shift from treating individuals as targets to improving quality of care
indicators which needs to go beyond purely clinical indicators with clear
monitoring mechanisms”
Dr. Abhijit Das,
Director of Centre for Health and Social Justice in his presentation strongly
stated the need to address migration from rural to urban cities which was the
reason for ‘overcrowding’ in cities and not population growth. The Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare needs to educate everyone about the ‘population
momentum’ effect. China is facing the brunt due to its one-child norm and soon
going to face the situation where there will be very low productive population
and huge imbalance in sex ratios. If India takes the same path of the two-child
norm, it will land up in the same boat. Instead
of worrying about increasing numbers, India needs to concentrate on build the
skills of the workforce as we will have a large young population who could be
turned into an asset for the country.
Advocate Colin
Gonsalves, Supreme Court Advocate and Director of Human Rights Law Network
pressed on the need for greater accountability of the government towards
people. He highlighted the subhuman conditions in the public health sector in
which women are sterilized in different parts of the country which is exactly like
as it happened during the, ‘emergency era’.
Dr. S.K. Sikdar, Deputy
Commissioner and head of Family Planning Division, Government of India, shared
that National Population Policy 2000 is not about ‘population control’. India’s
decadal growth rate is on a massive decline, nothing can hasten this decline.
The government is focusing on the continuum of care including maternal, child
and adolescent health and spacing. He acknowledged that ‘quality of care’
continues to be a concern for the government.
Ms Jagmati Sangwan, the
National Vice President of All India Democratic Woman’s Association (AIDWA)
stressed that development is the best contraceptive, and the need to focus on
empowering the Dalit’s and the marginalised communities through education and
economic empowerment so that they have the right to choose their family size
instead of forcing them into sterilisation.
Dr Indu Agnihotri,
director of Centre for Women Development Studies, a research organisation in
Delhi, shared her concern about the way new contraceptive in the garb of
spacing is pushed across within the country, and the need for the government to
take notice of this unhealthy trend which compromises the health of women and
leads to poor reproductive health outcomes for a number of women in India.
Ms Usha Rai and Ms.
Rajalakshmi, senior media persons stressed on the need for stronger media and
civil society collaboration. The focus of media writings needs to be brought
back to reproductive health and ‘rights’ angle.
Twenty one civil society organisation
representatives from Delhi, Bihar, Odisha and Thirteen media persons were part
of this dialogue.
For media coverage, please click here -http://newindianexpress.com/opinion/Duo-in-demographic-race/2013/07/11/article1677258.ece
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