Population Control in India: Prologue to the Emergency Period

摘要

SOME 30 YEARS after the event, the Emergency Period remains the one episode in the history of family planning in India that would appear to require no introduction. It has become emblematic of everything that can go wrong in a program premised on "population control" rather than on reproductive rights and health. This included time-bound performance targets; a preference for methods that minimized the need for sustained motivation; disregard for basic medical standards; incentive payments that, for the very poorest, constituted a form of coercion; disincentives that punished non-participation; and official consideration of compulsory sterilization, which, even if never enacted into law, signaled that achieving national population targets might override individual dignity and welfare.