Jairam Ramesh – MP, Former Union Minister:

On Friday, I spoke on Private Member’s Bill on Population Regulation.

First, we must acknowledge that India is a success story in family planning through democratic means at low levels of per capita income. Today, India as a whole, has reached replacement levels of fertility.

But there are issues:

• India‘s population is ageing before we become a rich country.
  
  
• Skewed regional distribution of population. States that did well on family planning must not be penalised on resources & representation.
  
  
• Social & physical security of aged single women.
  
  
• Lastly, we must commit ourselves as a society, to deal with our problems of demography in a deepened democratic manner with means of education & empowerment, and WITHOUT demeaning one section of society or the other. It must NOT be through coercive and mandatory methods.