POLICY OPTIONS IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Developing countries are still struggling with the problem of having fertility levels perceived to be higher than what they should be. Also, several parts of the country still have high mortality levels particularly among infants, children and women in the reproductive ages. A practical issue in this context is: what needs to be done in this context? Here a distinction has to be made between family planning programme and beyond family planning measures. The former focuses on promotion of birth control methods, the latter on all other factors which can be regulated to reduce fertility. The success of a family planning programme is not the necessary and sufficient condition for fertility decline, and fertility decline is not a necessary and sufficient condition of decline of growth rate of population. Thus a distinction has to be made between family planning programme, fertility policy and population policy.

Once it is decided that the government must go for reducing the fertility rates, then the issue arises: what options are there before the national governments? Conceivably, the options are:

• Use of coercion – making it compulsory to limit the family size to one or two children through political, social and legal interventions

• Taking all necessary actions to promote knowledge and practice of family planning methods though voluntary means; and

• Focusing on those parameters of social and economic development which are known for having fertility depressing effect in other countries – developed as well as developing – particularly in those countries which have similar social structure and political environment.