charukesi August 11th, 2005
Time has an interesting piece on Conspiracy Theory and Birth Control . This says that a recent research (500 African-Americans between the ages of 15 and 44) found that one third believe medical researchers use blacks as guinea pigs for unproven forms of contraception. About 25% believe that “poor and minority women are sometimes forced to be sterilized by the government,” and 22% believe that government policies are designed “to control the number of black people.”.
This made me think about likely conspiracy theories in the Indian scenario. After fifty five years of policy and population control measures, the billion mark that we kept seeing for years and years has come and gone on. And we are still struggling with an ineffective population control program.
The cultural and economic factors are the more obvious and well understood. Couples having children and more children in the hope for a son. And then just one more son. Not to forget also the notion that a child is a gift from god. Urban, rural. Rich, poor. No difference here. And then, definitely among the poorer sections - one more child, one more earning hand - what about one more mouth to feed?
Beyond this, the tragic gender issues. A large majority of women, ignorant and powerless.
I remember these quotes from a long ago study on social marketing of condoms in UP.
My father in law is the mukhiya of this village. How can I go and ask for the pills from the centre - if he comes to know, he will beat me (the father-in-law)
My mother in law found out that my husband was using a condom. And she threatened to commit suicide. Ater that, we stopped.
Not just husband, but the mother-in-law and father-in-law in control of the woman’s reproductive life. Everyone but the woman herself. (Did Shashi Tharoor’s Priscilla in Riot die because she helped a muslim woman abort her baby?)
The communication focus - another thing I have believed - that the focus of communication realting to population control programs has been long term and macro focus - concepts like crossing the billion mark and growth in GPD are as irrelevant to me as an individual as they are to the illiterate woman in the village - they hardly touch my now-and-here.
I came across this paper - Family Welfare Programme and Population Stabilization Strategies in India which argues for a welfare focus in population control programs. Some thoughts from that…
It is being argued that macro development, which had been emphasized in the early debate on population and development, is not directly relevant unless it is beneficial for improving the individual’s quality of life. Vijayanunni (1994:193) concludes that what is important is not overall development through large-scale projects and programmes, the benefits of which reach the common man/woman only indirectly and after a long gestation period, but welfare-loaded policies and programmes which impart direct and immediate benefits to the people - these include role of literacy, status of women, child health programs.
And finally the political angle - here is where we come close to the conspiracy theory that I started out with. Somewhere very early on in the policy years, the population control program acquired a strong and agressive target focus. Result - sterilization became the “preferred method”. And I am not even talking about Sanjay Gandhi’s ideas about sterilization here.
Was this the beginning if the undoing of any good that communication programs with a softer, welfare-oriented programs could do - given time?
Unfortunately, over the years, the target has become an end in itself and not the means to bring about a decline in the birth rate (Bose, 1989:186). In order to fulfil targets, it was inevitable that a great deal of drafting and mobilization of personnel from other “nation-building” activities would be required for the sake of the family planning programme. However, these personnel were not equipped to deal with such sensitive areas as those related to individual family life. So the kind of persuasion and pressure applied by these people was very crude, lacking the human touch. Sterilization of unmarried men. Repeat procedures. Operations performed under threat and coercion, and bribes.
I know what a problem it is for many social researchers going into villages to speak with the women. This is what an expert had told me when I interviewed her for my disseratation.
I had to open my bag and show that I was not carrying any instrument – it was literally like hands up, see no weapons!
They were turning hostile… if I only want to speak to the women, why do I want to take them alone to a separate room?
