Books

India has been the first among the developing countries to recognise the importance of population control and to launch a nation-wide programme of family planning. The programme has, however, seen many vicissitudes in its long journey since 1952 and by 1975, the nation realised that its achievements in this field had been less than satisfactory.

The Government of India, therefore, launched a new population policy in April 1976 in pursuance whereof a wide variety of incentives and disincentives were offered to the people to encourage them to adopt family planning. These measures no t only failed miserably in attracting the people to family planning but alienated them completely from the programme because of extensive use of coercion in its implementation . The campaign of forcible sterilization, which became a part of these measures was in fact instrumental in bringing about a total collapse of the policy itself.

The present publication is the first major attempt at analysing the policy implication s of the scheme of incentive s and disin centives introduced in 1976. The book brings out in sharp focus the limitations of the scheme as well as its consequences on the morale of the people and the administration. The study also makes some useful suggestions which should help formulate the future population policy of India on a more pragmatic and viable basis.