03-05-2005, 02:04 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>We two, ours any!</b>
Last word
Sachidananda Murthy
When just married couples are asked "any good news" in our country, the query is whether a child is expected. Such is the eagerness that those who delay the arrival of their first-born, or are unable to give the "good news", squirm at the question asked by relatives and well-wishers, not to speak of impatient would-be grandparents.
A similar question is posed for the second pregnancy too, with less intensity and frequency. And then, of course, there are jokes about PPP (Permanently Pregnant Person). The Pakistan Peopleâs Party was called this when its president Benazir Bhutto had to take breaks for delivering children.
Now PPPs will not be frowned upon by the government, as the health ministry says the two-child norm, propagated for decades, is no more the official policy. It says couples are free to decide on the size of their families, thus ending zealous legislation in some north Indian states which bars persons having more than two children from contesting panchayat elections.
"We two, Ours two" was the theme of the campaign on which thousands of crores were spent by the health ministry. When there was a campaign saying one child for glory (keerti) and another for glow (aarti), women groups had objected that the son was given primacy.
<b>There will be no sniggering when politicians with a big brood occupy high positions like prime ministers P.V. Narasimha Rao (nine children) and H.D. Deve Gowda (seven) or Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav (nine) and once health minister B. Shankaranand (eight). </b>Barring Lalu, the others had children when the small family norm was not in fashion. The ministryâs decision takes the family size out of the public domain, leaving the number of children to planning or passion.
Government statistics show that one out of four pregnancies are unwanted, but few are terminated. Charles Dickens said "accidents will occur in the best regulated families". Many Indian couples do not "regulate" through contraceptives, either due to religious beliefs or because of the feeling that "the experience is not like the real thing" or due to carelessness. Mark Twain once quipped: "Familiarity breeds contemptâand children."
The abandonment of the two-child norm is a careful one. The government does not expect a spurt of pregnancies. It still supports a small family and has targetted 150 districts, all in north and east India, for focussing on family planning. The government wants to bring down the birthrate from the current 2.9 per thousand to the national target of 2.1.<b> Yet it has accepted a social reality that if couples are told to stop after two babies, the side effect would boost female foeticide and infanticide in horror states like Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and even Delhi, where there are more men than women</b>.
Population policies have always been beset by political controversies, even though there is a broad consensus that India cannot just afford to double its population in the next half century, given the strain on resources. While the excess population was seen as a burden leading to disaster in the 1960s and 1970s, <b>now it has become the human resource base for the economic boom, creating one of the biggest consumer societies in the world. Attempts to promote small families has led to the spread of irresponsible fears. </b>Muslim voluntary organisations in Uttar Pradesh had to campaign hard against a belief in the community that polio drops would make the children grow into impotent adulthood.
Coercive policies have backfired, as it happened during Emergency when the entire programme got a bad name. Use of condoms in north Indian states has actually declined in the last five years, as the baby boomer generation believes that condoms are to be used for extra-marital and commercial sex.
China has vigorously implemented the one-child norm for a long time, but now, as its economy booms, the demand is for expansion of the three-member family. Studies have indicated that single children of parents who themselves are the only children, crave for larger families. In India, the size of the family would be now decided in bedrooms, than in government offices!
Feedback: sachi@the-week.com
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Last word
Sachidananda Murthy
When just married couples are asked "any good news" in our country, the query is whether a child is expected. Such is the eagerness that those who delay the arrival of their first-born, or are unable to give the "good news", squirm at the question asked by relatives and well-wishers, not to speak of impatient would-be grandparents.
A similar question is posed for the second pregnancy too, with less intensity and frequency. And then, of course, there are jokes about PPP (Permanently Pregnant Person). The Pakistan Peopleâs Party was called this when its president Benazir Bhutto had to take breaks for delivering children.
Now PPPs will not be frowned upon by the government, as the health ministry says the two-child norm, propagated for decades, is no more the official policy. It says couples are free to decide on the size of their families, thus ending zealous legislation in some north Indian states which bars persons having more than two children from contesting panchayat elections.
"We two, Ours two" was the theme of the campaign on which thousands of crores were spent by the health ministry. When there was a campaign saying one child for glory (keerti) and another for glow (aarti), women groups had objected that the son was given primacy.
<b>There will be no sniggering when politicians with a big brood occupy high positions like prime ministers P.V. Narasimha Rao (nine children) and H.D. Deve Gowda (seven) or Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav (nine) and once health minister B. Shankaranand (eight). </b>Barring Lalu, the others had children when the small family norm was not in fashion. The ministryâs decision takes the family size out of the public domain, leaving the number of children to planning or passion.
Government statistics show that one out of four pregnancies are unwanted, but few are terminated. Charles Dickens said "accidents will occur in the best regulated families". Many Indian couples do not "regulate" through contraceptives, either due to religious beliefs or because of the feeling that "the experience is not like the real thing" or due to carelessness. Mark Twain once quipped: "Familiarity breeds contemptâand children."
The abandonment of the two-child norm is a careful one. The government does not expect a spurt of pregnancies. It still supports a small family and has targetted 150 districts, all in north and east India, for focussing on family planning. The government wants to bring down the birthrate from the current 2.9 per thousand to the national target of 2.1.<b> Yet it has accepted a social reality that if couples are told to stop after two babies, the side effect would boost female foeticide and infanticide in horror states like Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and even Delhi, where there are more men than women</b>.
Population policies have always been beset by political controversies, even though there is a broad consensus that India cannot just afford to double its population in the next half century, given the strain on resources. While the excess population was seen as a burden leading to disaster in the 1960s and 1970s, <b>now it has become the human resource base for the economic boom, creating one of the biggest consumer societies in the world. Attempts to promote small families has led to the spread of irresponsible fears. </b>Muslim voluntary organisations in Uttar Pradesh had to campaign hard against a belief in the community that polio drops would make the children grow into impotent adulthood.
Coercive policies have backfired, as it happened during Emergency when the entire programme got a bad name. Use of condoms in north Indian states has actually declined in the last five years, as the baby boomer generation believes that condoms are to be used for extra-marital and commercial sex.
China has vigorously implemented the one-child norm for a long time, but now, as its economy booms, the demand is for expansion of the three-member family. Studies have indicated that single children of parents who themselves are the only children, crave for larger families. In India, the size of the family would be now decided in bedrooms, than in government offices!
Feedback: sachi@the-week.com
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