From: Tom Gray <tgray@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: sci.environment
Date: 11 Nov 92 10:01 PST
Subject: IPS: India: Population Curbs
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1466601898:000:4396
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!tgray    Nov 11 10:01:00 1992


/* Written 12:12 am  Oct 26, 1992 by newsdesk@igc.apc.org in igc:ips.englibrary */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: INDIA: UNFPA chief says India can meet demographic goals


new delhi, oct 23 (ips) -- india's birth control programme is
poised to take off, and if backed adequately by social spending
can meet the country's demographic goals, the head of the
united nations population fund (unfpa) said here friday.

''the indian (family planning) programme has started making
strides and if more investments are made in social sectors,
specially in the northern states, the country can rapidly achieve
its target of replacement level fertility,'' nafis sadik told a
crowded press conference in the indian capital.

the unfpa chief arrived here friday as a state guest on a
week-long visit during which she will inaugurate a u.n. expert
group meeting on 'family planning, health and family well-being'
in the southern city of bangalore, in preparation for the 'world
population and development conference' in 1994 in egypt.

''family planning is one of the interventions to meet
demographic goals,'' sadik said. ''all our experience has shown
that countries which have succeeded in stabilising population
growth over the last decade are those which have combined it with
social development, specially improvement in women's condition.''

india's 840 million people are growing at over two percent
annually, and planners are racing against time to lower fertility
levels to reach the two-child family goal by the year 2000.

the more optimistic planners say this will eventually lead to
zero population growth by the year 2050.

''there seems to be no correlation between poverty and income
levels, and acceptance of family planning which is related more
to the levels of social investment,'' sadik added.

india's family planning programme has long been interlinked
with providing basic health care. while acknowledging that the
indian government was trying to improve the quality of these
services, sadik said special help is needed in the country's
backward north where growth levels are alarmingly high.

the four northern states of bihar, madhya pradesh, rajasthan
and uttar pradesh, home to over 40 percent of india's people,
account for more than 45 percent of births every year.

with their abysmally low female literacy levels and high
infant mortality rates, socio-economic development in these
states is estimated to be trailing that in the rest of india by
about two decades. (more/ips)


india: unfpa (2)

''we have learnt over the years that birth control programmes
must educate people about the importance of family planning,
offer a wide variety of contraceptive services but leave the
choice of method to the users,'' says sadik.

family planning education has been targeted so far mostly at
women, but she says men too must be counselled.

india's four decade-old birth control programme is asia's
oldest, and has helped bring down fertility levels.

in 1967 only 4.1 percent of couples used birth control
devices, now an estimate 43 percent of the over 140 couples in
the reproductive age group are planning their families. officials
are trying to raise this to 60 percent by the year 2000.

though population is growing fastest in sub-saharan africa, in
terms of absolute numbers, south asia is making the greatest
additions and the success of family planning programmes in the
region is vital to stabilising global population, says the unfpa.

the unfpa estimates that if the current average global
fertility level of 3.9 is lowered to 3.3 by the turn of the
century, world population will stabilise at between 10 and 11
billion by the year 2050.

if all countries were to reach replacement level fertility by
the end of the 1990's, then the world will have a stable
population of about eight billion 50 years later.
(end/ips/pr/mu/an/92)

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Xref: sparky sci.environment:12536 sci.engr.civil:515