Blame Family Planning Anathema on Those Who Have Made It a Protocol of Tragedy
The epitaphs of good causes are written by bad intentions and the
demons of avarice. Restricting India’s burgeoning population is not a
matter of faith but also a mission for survival. Over 1.5 million babies
are added to the existing 1.26 billion figure every month. All serious
attempts to calf rope the baby boom has got stuck in the quagmire of
controversies for the past four decades. Last week, over a dozen women
lost their lives in Bilaspur in the poor, tiny state of Chhattisgarh,
thanks to botched up sterilisation procedures. Around the same time, in
massive Uttar Pradesh, a surgeon reportedly took just 90 minutes to
complete 42 sterilisations at a Primary Health Centre in Kushinagar. The
tragedy of bureaucratic insouciance is that many health officials and
government doctors are driven by the kudos of achieving targets at any
cost, rather than the safety of patients. A grim aspect of poverty is
that the poor will accept government money to participate even in good
schemes. The Chhattisgarh sterilisation victims were paid `1,400 each to
go under the knife. Award-winning surgeon Dr R K Gupta reportedly
conducted 83 surgeries in less than three hours. His scissors and
spurious medicines were competing in a deadline race, as the doomed
women lay sedated in a conspiracy of negligence. When news of the
disaster broke, the state government followed the usual standard
procedures. The doctor was arrested, officials suspended and swift raids
were conducted on the illegal drug makers who were manufacturing
medicines from a two-room residential property in Raipur. Finally, a
probe was ordered after PM Narendra Modi dispatched an expert team from
the prestigious AIIMS, New Delhi, to take over the recovery and healing
operation. Further surgeries were postponed for an indefinite period.
The
famous Red Triangle, which symbolises family welfare, has been tarred
with the black pitch of greed and apathy. Obsessed by the development
catch phrase, all parties seem to have forgotten that the population is
also developing at an alarming rate. Few political leaders, civil
servants or even NGOs promote or speak on steps or programmes to educate
the illiterate and poor about the curse of having large families. The
slogan of ‘Hum Do, Humare Do’, which was once visible on myriad
hoardings and the betel-stained walls of various government institutions
has simply vanished.
Obviously, no political head rolled in
Chhattisgarh or UP. None was expected to because in all the states the
targets fixed were un-achievable and besides, they weren’t responsible
for prescribing medicines or setting operational procedures. But their
culpability is the highest because they do not see to it that population
growth is restricted to ensure proper implementation of rapid
development methods. Both the Bilaspur and Kushinagar incidents once
again raise doubts over the success of India’s population control drive.
The fallout of the deaths was medical paralysis: in many states,
officials stalled further surgeries fearing they would be hauled up for
criminal negligence.
Chhattisgarh and UP aren’t the only states
where award-chasing scissor hands and officials were engaged in carrying
out lethal surgeries on women who were looking for a bit of cash and
relief from carrying unwanted babies. According to health ministry
sources, 340 women have died in the past three years during or after
sterilisation. The horror of Chhattisgarh and UP made the headlines of
almost all newspapers and news channels. The international media
dutifully picked it up. Even UN agencies took note. It is obvious that
India is once again in the crosshairs of those who oppose coercive or
incentivised schemes for population control in the name of human rights.
An over-populated India would pose a lesser threat to the established
global order than an emerging power with reasonable Census figures.
Since
the Emergency, when forced sterilisations became a political issue,
family planning campaigns have remained low key for the past 35 years.
Afterwards, Ghulam Nabi Azad, UPA’s health minister, was the first to
initiate various population control measures among the poor. But he was
wary of talking about it because of the political and communal
implications. Azad was only taking a cue from the Nehru-Gandhi Parivar.
It was Jawaharlal Nehru who started the Family Planning Programme in
1952. Later on, Indira Gandhi created a full-fledged department of
family planning under the health ministry in the late 60s. Finally it
took Sanjay Gandhi to fix population control targets—however
impractical—for government officials. Indira was so concerned about
India’s swelling population that she was even willing to suspend
fundamental rights to ensure a reduction in birth rates. In a speech
made during the Emergency, she said, “We must now act decisively and
bring down the birth rate speedily. We should not hesitate to take
steps, which might be described as drastic. Some personal rights have to
be kept in abeyance for the human rights of the nation.” Following
these strong words, Sanjay organised massive sterilisation campaigns and
even unmarried men and women were forced on to the operation table. The
programme became so notorious that for the next two decades, none of
the leaders even whispered the word ‘sterilisation’. The department’s
name was changed from family planning to family welfare. Even a powerful
and popular Prime Minister like Narendra Modi has hardly spoken about
family planning in the 500 speeches he has delivered in the past one
year.
Though India’s birth rate has fallen drastically, at 2.3 per
cent it is still one of the highest in the world.
Since the death rate
has declined due to better medical facilities and education, this rise
in population is ominous. If this trend continues, it could surpass
China’s in less than 15 years. Much worse, our fertility rate of 3.4 per
cent is the highest among the developing nations. Madhya Pradesh, UP,
Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Bihar account for almost half of India’s
population. While well-meaning and glamorous projects like bullet
trains, digital India, Swachh Bharat, Make in India etc. have found a
place of prominence in Modi’s Mission India, keeping the population
figures under control, unfortunately, is conspicuously missing. In the
global world of markets and money, the phrase ‘family planning’ is
anathema—seen as retrograde, regressive and politically incorrect. The
blame lies entirely with the civil servants and leaders who have
converted a humanitarian cause like population control into a protocol
of tragedy using the wrong means and methods. The requiems for the
unmourned, faceless women of Bilaspur and Kushinagar will echo in the
soul of India for a long time to come.
Prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com; Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla
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