From the India Today archives (1988) | Family planning: The great hoax

In a dimly lit room near Bombay's bustling Chembur district, a gilded clock silently counted lives. It did not measure time in seconds or minutes, but in people, each tick representing an Indian born. The device, housed at the government-backed International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), marked a milestone: 800 million Indians had been added to the rolls since independence. Now, one in every seven humans on Earth hailed from India. Yet, the country's population continued to swell at an alarming 2.13 percent annually, adding 16 million souls each year, a figure that equaled the entire population of Australia. Professor P.N. Srivastava, a member of the Planning Commission, remarked that this rate had remained unchanged since 1977, showing no decline despite substantial investment. Over the past decade alone, the government had poured Rs 3,000 crore into family planning initiatives, three times the sum allocated in the preceding thirty years. Government officials claimed that the number of couples using contraception had surged from 26.4 million in 1980 to 54 million in recent years. However, these figures were challenged by data from the Registrar General of India’s Sample Registration System. For nearly a decade, the system consistently recorded a crude birth rate of 33 births per 1,000 people annually. Last year, that translated to approximately 25 million newborns. This metric, crucial for assessing the effectiveness of family planning efforts, showed no significant change. Ashish Bose, a respected population expert and sharp critic of the ministry, noted that the government’s claims reflected only the rise in spending, not actual progress. The rapid population increase posed a major obstacle to national development. Each child born cost the state Rs 16,000 in upbringing expenses. To provide even basic education, the country would need to establish 150 new primary schools daily, an impossible task given current capacity of just 60. Food security was also under threat, as the pace of population growth demanded more jobs, housing, and healthcare facilities. The majority of the populace risked slipping below the poverty line, known as the Garibi Rekha. India pioneered the global family planning movement, launching its program in 1951. Over the decades, the government experimented with numerous strategies, from distributing contraceptives via community centers to enforcing measures during the Emergency period. However, as Pai Panandiker, director of the Centre for Policy Research, observed, “adjustment in India seems to have no sex appeal.” Despite these efforts, the population continued to grow unchecked. Upon taking office in 1984, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi introduced a series of new programs and slogans aimed at curbing population growth. Four years later, however, little had changed. The inverted red triangle, once a symbol of the government’s struggle against rising numbers, became emblematic of its inability to stem the tide. Despite these challenges, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry persisted in promoting misleading narratives. Among the alleged falsehoods was the claim that 20.5 million new users joined the family planning initiative last year. According to official reports, this achievement was attributed to relentless effort and resource allocation. Yet, such statements raised questions about the accuracy of the ministry’s assessments and the true impact of its policies.