Family planning in India is voluntary, coercion will be counter productive: Central government tells Supreme Court

Coercing people to have a certain number of children would be counter-productive and would lead to demographic distortion, the Central government told the Supreme Court expressing its disinclination towards forced family planning and population control laws..In an affidavit filed before the top court on December 7, the Centre said that India is a signatory to the Programme of Action of International Conference on Population and Development, 1994 which is unequivocally against coercion in family planning.“In fact international experience shows that any coercion to have a certain number of children is counter-productive and leads to demographic distortions. The Family Welfare Programme in India is voluntary in nature which enables couples to decide the size of their families and adopt family planning methods best suited to them according to their choice without any compulsion,” the Centre submitted..The affidavit was filed in response to a petition filed by BJP spokesperson and lawyer, Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay seeking enactment of law to control population and enforce family planning.Upadhyay has submitted that population explosion is the “root cause of most of put problems” including shortage of drinking water, land, food, clothes and poverty..The Centre in its affidavit submitted that “public health” is a State subject under Indian constitution and States mist lead the process of health sector reforms..“The Central government plays a supportive and facilitative role in achieving health care reforms and outcomes,” it added..Moreover, it was also pointed out that India is witnessing a constant decline in Total Fertility Rate (TFR). The TFR which was 3.2 when the National Population Policy 2000 was adopted has declined substantially to 2.2, the Centre claimed..Listing out various measures taken by the Centre, the affidavit stated that “India is knocking at the doors of achieving replacement level fertility and has made remarkable improvement in reducing maternal and child mortality.“25 out of 36 States have achieved replacement level fertility of 2.1 or less,” the affidavit said.