Former minister in the Vajpayee government and senior BJP leader Sanjay Paswan has said that national development can happen only with a controlled population. Said Paswan to THE WEEK, “I am of the opinion that population management and planning should be done with persuasion and not by force. The country can move forward only if we maintain our population.” Paswan is of the view that sterilisation is not the way to control population but sensitisation is what is required.
Earlier this month, Union minister Giriraj Singh had said that after demonetisation there was an urgent need to make laws for sterilisation in the country. Singh said that all sections of society should adopt sterilisation to control population in the country. The BJP was quick to disown the minister’s statement and said it was his personal views and the government had nothing to do with it. Said Rahul Sinha, BJP leader, “It is not the agenda of the government. But the government wants to control the rising population by making people understand and aware about it.”
India’s population growth rate has declined from 21.54 per cent in 1991-2000 to 17.64 per cent in 2000-11. But various international agencies have projected that India will be the most populous country in the world by 2022.
It is said that more than 80 per cent of the country’s family planning budget was spent on conducting sterilisations on women, while less than 2 per cent was spent on other forms of contraception.
