Although India started its official family planning program way back in 1951, a formal statement on population policy was issued by the Congress Government in 1976 when India passing through Internal Emergency.

Policy decisions taken out of fear result in folly. The author introduces the paper with a plea for critical reflection about the population problem.

Never before in History have so many People used contraceptive technology to regulate and control their fertility.

With 58 percent of married couples in Asia and Oceania using a contraceptive method in 1990 (United Nations, 1994), contraception - a novelty two decades ago - has become the norm in much of the region.

High family size desire and low acceptance of family planning constitute, the two main factors underlying the high fertility of the Indian population. Excessive loss of children in early childhood in rural areas is considered to be contributory to both of the above factors.

All five countries of South Asia, containing over one-fourth of the developing world's population, increased the effort levels of their national family planning programs over the 17 years from 2 to 1989.

An extensive literature exists on the determinants of fertility behavior in developing countries, and how these determinants may constrain demand for family planning services.

Recent studies examining British attitudes and ideologies which structured colonial policies towards 'outcaste'2 and 'deviant' groups in indigenous society, have suggested that the groups who were marginalised included those whose activities were conceived of as 'threatening' to new normative def

The statement, tucked away in one of the many thick Agrawal Samaj magazines I had been perusing, made me smile.