Title: The Search for Population Policy
Description: The paper notes that the "ineffectiveness" of current policy efforts can be attributed to the failure to recognize that the decision-makers in this regard are individuals. Basically, it is the individual's perception of the "population problem" which is crucial for the success of any effort. In this sense, therefore, national-level perception and analysis of the problem alone could hardly prove adequate. What is important in this connection is to focus attention on (a) the demonstrability of individual/family benefits arising out of smaller families, and (b) the demonstrability through diffusion of information and experience within society of the changing pattern of demographic facts of life. What does the discussion of the "population problem" mean to an individual of family earning an uncertain income in the rural areas of the country? How can the message be relayed to him? What are his particular needs and requirements? How can they be best and most expeditiously met? These are questions to which one needs to find solutions in searching for a comprehensive population policy.
Places: Colombo, Sri Lanka
Time periods: Sri Lanka Labour Gazette, Volume 25, No.10