Indian PM warns against 'coercion' to curb runaway population growth

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned at the weekend against "coercion of any kind" to rein in the country's billion-plus population that is expected to overtake China's by the middle of this century.

"I sincerely believe coercion of any kind to achieve population stabilisation is unacceptable in a free society," Singh said, adding education and other tools were more effective ways to curb birth rates.

India's population, which stood at 360 million in 1951, crossed the one billion mark in 2001. With just 2.4 percent of the global land mass housing 16 percent of the world's population, huge pressure has been placed on the country's economic and environmental resources.

Singh said human resources were "an invaluable asset in economic and social development," but cautioned there were "limits to the population that the environment can sustain in the long run.

"Sustainability of development processes requires a degree of population stabilisation," he told the National Commission on Population on Saturday.

However, he told policy planners not to offer incentives or use coercive measures to tame population growth, saying such steps yield only marginal results and cause public resentment.

"We must not mistake population stabilisation (for) population control," Singh said.

Among steps taken by governments in the past to curb population growth was forced sterlisation of young men in the mid-1970s that spurred huge opposition. Measures such as imposing two-child norms to obtain government jobs and other benefits result in high levels of infanticide and abortion, demographers say.

Early marriage and poor access to family planning facilities had also set back population control efforts, Singh said.

"This has contributed to the demographic pattern of too early, too frequent and too many children," Singh said.

He urged investment in health and a broader development policy to address the educational and economic needs of the people. Demographers say such steps are vital to any population stabilisation strategy.

In the south, Kerala boasts literacy levels far higher than other Indian state, particularly for women. This, demographers say, has helped it achieve a birth rate that is around one-third of the national average.

Singh said population stabilisation must involve "a holistic, comprehensive approach towards education and health care, particularly of our women and children" and urged a "concerted campaign" focusing on young female welfare.