India's population policy : critical issues for the future

World Bank Reprint Series: Number Seventy-eight Ravi Gulhati India's Population Policy: Critical Issues for the Future Reprinted from Puiblic Policy, vol. 26, no. 3 (Summer 1978), pp. 415-54  Public Policy Volume 26 No. 3 (Summer 1978) INDIA'S POPULATION POLICY: Critical Issues for the Future RAVI GULHATI* The Indian birth rate has started to (leclinie as a result of socioeco- nomic progress and the family-planning effort. About 19 percent of couples of reproductive age are practicing conztr7aception. Recent offi- cial pronouncements on population policy neglect several critical is- sues. Approximately 52 million couples-half of all couples of repro- ductive age-emain desperately poor. The family-planning delivery system is not geared to their needs. To engineer a demographic transi- tion for this large segment requires policy innovations of a very highi order: (1) an overhaul of admiinistrative practices, mandates, and budget norms; (2) a combinied rural developmient and family-planning program; and (3) a recognition of regional div'ersity and the adoption of a sequential strategy. India's brief flirtationi with coercive family planning is over. The program suffered a major setback during the 1975-1977 Emergency when many political rights were abridged. It will be some time before new initiatives can be mounted. Meanwhile, it is important to analyze past experience in order to identify the major issues and options that confront the policy maker in the population field. This is the primary purpose of this article, which is concerned mainly with fertility rather than with mortality, migration, or other topics that might conceivably fall under the heading of population policy. Its object is not to add to the large volume of scholarly research on past trends in the birth rate or to rnake future projections. It takes for granted the niee(d to reduce Inidian fertility in the interest of eco- nomic and social (levelopment; this point has been arguiedl con- N'incingly in n-iiny places. Given this ol)jecti%'e, the present article * rhe views expresseti in this article are personal andc should not be .inlibuled to my enmplnvel, the World Bank. Copyright