By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
NEW DELHI, July 15, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told a large gathering at an event held to mark World Population Day on July 11 that his government would not use coercive policies to stabilize India's population. He said that “awareness among the people of the benefits of small families was the most effective way to achieve the goal.”
World Population Day is an annual event established by the United Nations Development Program that focuses on the UN's agenda of global population control.
The event in New Delhi, titled “Run for Population Stabilization,” saw more than 3,000 school children run a marathon on the Rajpath from Vijay Chowk to the India Gate.
Minister Azad told those assembled before the run that while “population stabilization was extremely important, given that India has a 17 per cent share of the world's population, but a mere 2.5 per cent of global land,” the Central government would try to stabilize the population by making the people aware of the benefits of small families.
“Strict implementation of the laws governing the age of marriage (18 for girls and 21 for boys) and delayed first child with proper spacing may help in dealing with the population problem,” Azad said.
The minister also touched on the “problem of the craving for a male child,” but stopped short of addressing the issue of female infanticide and sex-selective abortion, saying that “the spread of education, especially among girls, would help” the problem.
India already has a conspicuous gender imbalance thanks to the potent combination of sex-selective abortions and a cultural preference for boys.
However, Azad’s statement that the Indian government will not use “coercion” is not a guarantee that softer pressure tactics will not be used.
A government project in 2003 to give credits to rural health workers based on their success in persuading couples to have fewer children by using condoms, the pill and the IUD, and sterilization, was called “coercive” by Dr. Jack Wilke, President of the International Right to Life Federation.
Dr. Wilke told LifeSiteNews (LSN) at the time that offering incentives, such as radios, refrigerators, cell phones and jewelry, to health workers for pushing population control methods often leads to coercive practices.
“Such incentives have in some areas in the past and could in this situation lead health officials to be coercive in their push for couples to use abortifacient contraception, sterilization and abortion,” he said.
See related LSN articles:
Indian Gov't Uses Population Control Incentives While Bride Crisis Continues
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/feb/03020509.html
India Pro-Life Leader Explains How West Hurts India with Imposed Population Control
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/aug/06081701.html