BIRTH CONTROL FOR INDIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 October 1933, Page 10

BIRTH CONTROL FOR INDIA

REPORT OF CENSUS CHIEF Controversy is likely to be aroused by the recommendation of the Census Commissioner that Government instruction in birth control should he introduced into India.

The Commissioner, Dr. H. J. Hutton, states in his report that the increase of the population of All-India by 34,000,000, or 10 per cent, in ten years, causes alarm rather than satisfaction. The latest figures for the whole of India 'show that there are: — Males . . .. 181.828,923 Females .. . . 171,008,855 Total . . 352.537.778

Dr. Hutton declares that the increase is nearly equivalent to the whole population of France and Italy and is greater than that of Spain or Poland. It. places India ahead of all countries, not excluding China, in the number .of its people. The real problem, the report proceeds, is not so much the actual total increase as the fact that the majority of it is in the portion of the population which is. engaged in agricultural pursuits. The problem is complicated by. lack of capital among that class for the extension of cultivation beyond the existing margin of subsistence, especially where the rainfall is problematic. There appears Io he a definite move. Dr. Hutton states, towards birth control. especially in Madras and Mysore. He urges that before steps are taken to reduce the high infantile .mortality, precautions should be taken to reduce birth rate, and that every opportunity should be seized for giving instruction in birth control.

India’s urban population, he adds, 1only 11 per cent, of the total. Just as with Roman Catholicism, birth control is against the religions tenets of Hinduism. But many writers have recently advocated propaganda on the subject.

Among them is Major-Gen. Sir John Megaw, Director-General of the Indian Medical Service. A report which he issued recently shows that only 39 per cent, of the population is well nourished, and contains a warning that the growth of population is already outstripping the increase of food production. Unless this is adjusted, he declares, there will be an even lower standard of living in the next decade.