Public Interest Litigation vs. VHP & AIMPLB (All-India Muslim Personal Law Board)

[deepender]

I know this can spark stong feelings, but I've been contemplating bringing a PIL against these two organizations for inciting people towards population explosion. People like Praveen Tagodia on the VHP side have openly making really unfortunate statements recently (infact he dared to make one in Rohtak recently), asking Hindus to produce as many children as possible. Leaders from AIMPLB aren't to be left behind as well....

Some quotes that have appreared recently --
Abdul Rahim Qureshi, General Secretary, AIMPLB :
"Despite 75 per cent increase in its population since independence, country has made substantial progress in industry, agriculture, technology and other spheres. The board is of the view that rise in population does not obstruct development"

Maulana Rabey Hasni Nadwi, Chairman, AIMPLB :
"Population control, for the umpteenth time now, is counter-Islamic."

Pravin Togadia, VHP international secretary:
"The options before us are clear: either let their (Muslim's) population grow and India will become an Islamic nation. Or, Hindus should actively adopt the policy of population increase taking a cue from our scriptures which bless a person with 'ashta putro bhava' (beget eight sons)"

Swami Avdeshanand Giri, chief of the influential Juna Akhara in VHP:
"Any society with a bigger population commands greater influence in the world. It is a myth that increased population increases unemployment... To counter the dangerous crisis posed by the Muslim population, we urge the Hindu society to make constructive contribution towards increasing the population of the community"

I strongly believe that population is one of the root causes of numerous problems that we face as a nation, and that these religious organisations would be better served by preaching people about principles of their respective faiths rather than inciting them to fight a population battle. As far as I know, neither Hinduism nor Islam, the religions these organisations claim to represent, say anything about fighting population battles.

I believe time might have come for someone to take on these head-on; haven't researched the details of the law yet but if ever there was a cause that would be of people's good interest....what are some of your thoughts? any suggestions? advice?

 

[rkumar]

If one goes by biological basis of reproduction,

1. weak species tend to breed faster to balance their gene pool.
2. Weak gets up of its feet early and starts earning its food.
3. Weak usually move in mobs/ herds to protect itself.

The brain which can control these population herds and use them most effectively, is what we need more than anything...

RK^2

 

[raj2rif]

An Anti Indian Attitude

Dear Mr. Hooda,

Any person who is talking about increase in population clearly lack vision and nationalistic feeling and must be condemned. I would say a legal action is very much appropriate against such hooligans. Population increase is not in the interest of the nation and any one irrespective of his/her race, religion or faith who talks about it must be taken to the task.

 

[ramksehrawat]

It is a fact that population explosion in India is taking dangerous proportions but blaming it on a particular religion is no solution. Hindus too must share the equal blame. Only difference being that now educated Hindus have started working towards the control of population by adopting family planning, Muslims refuse to do as still regard children as "Allah ki Meharbani". Learning from China, we should strictly enforce the rule of 1-2 child irrespective of religion. We Indians know only one language and that is "danda". Cajoling or just making schemes is no solution. Schemes are neither implemented nor appeal the common man. Even incentives offered for adopting small family norms hardly reach the people. The emergence of Togadia owes their emergence to the faulty social policy and pseudo-secularism followed by the successive governments since independence. Pampering the minorities will not help the cause, rather if we don't stop this pampering sooner or later it will explode. It is high time that we take corrective measures and follow the true secular principles by identifying everyone as only "INDIAN'.

 

[jitender_singh]

Hi,

I am strongly support this.

Regards
Jitender

It is a fact that population explosion in India is taking dangerous proportions but blaming it on a particular religion is no solution. Hindus too must share the equal blame. Only difference being that now educated Hindus have started working towards the control of population by adopting family planning, Muslims refuse to do as still regard children as "Allah ki Meharbani". Learning from China, we should strictly enforce the rule of 1-2 child irrespective of religion. We Indians know only one language and that is "danda". Cajoling or just making schemes is no solution. Schemes are neither implemented nor appeal the common man. Even incentives offered for adopting small family norms hardly reach the people. The emergence of Togadia owes their emergence to the faulty social policy and pseudo-secularism followed by the successive governments since independence. Pampering the minorities will not help the cause, rather if we don't stop this pampering sooner or later it will explode. It is high time that we take corrective measures and follow the true secular principles by identifying everyone as only "INDIAN'.

 

[deepender]

Respected Tavathia ji & Jitender bhai,

Appreciate your support on this, will keep you posted as I develop this idea further. I have sought legal opinion on this at the moment and am waiting to hear back on that.

Regards,
Deepender

Hi,

I am strongly support this.

Regards
Jitender

Dear Mr. Hooda,

Any person who is talking about increase in population clearly lack vision and nationalistic feeling and must be condemned. I would say a legal action is very much appropriate against such hooligans. Population increase is not in the interest of the nation and any one irrespective of his/her race, religion or faith who talks about it must be taken to the task.

 

[deepender]

Respected Sehrawat ji,

I'm not sure I align with you on "danda" approach, though I too feel that could be the best way to get quick results in India similar to China. But after giving it a lot of thought it seems like in our political structure it might be difficult to enforce such measures. We can call it a con of democracy perhaps. Education / and generating more awareness about this issue seems to be a workable solution in our case for now. And one purpose of such a PIL will be just to bring focus/limelight/awareness to this issue.

On your other thought - I agree with you 100%, we should seperate out population problem from religion; and the Govt. or judiciary should restrain religious groups from using this as a tool to advance hatred in our society.

Regards,
Deep

It is a fact that population explosion in India is taking dangerous proportions but blaming it on a particular religion is no solution. Hindus too must share the equal blame. Only difference being that now educated Hindus have started working towards the control of population by adopting family planning, Muslims refuse to do as still regard children as "Allah ki Meharbani". Learning from China, we should strictly enforce the rule of 1-2 child irrespective of religion. We Indians know only one language and that is "danda". Cajoling or just making schemes is no solution. Schemes are neither implemented nor appeal the common man. Even incentives offered for adopting small family norms hardly reach the people. The emergence of Togadia owes their emergence to the faulty social policy and pseudo-secularism followed by the successive governments since independence. Pampering the minorities will not help the cause, rather if we don't stop this pampering sooner or later it will explode. It is high time that we take corrective measures and follow the true secular principles by identifying everyone as only "INDIAN'.

 

[deepender]

Respected Uncle ji,

The biological theory analogy is insightful although I am not sure if I clearly understood what you meant by weak species.

Nevertheless, we surely need to use brains more effectively and higher levels of education/awareness in our society is something we all should strive for. Father of capitalism, Adam Smith, proposed the theory of division of labor; that the "wealth of nations" (GDP in modern times) is directly proportional to the product of number of hands that a nation has and how effectively/efficiently the national work is divided amoungst those thands. We clearly lack efficiency/effectiveness of our workforce, and should plan on increasing that faster instead of increasing the total number of hands. We, infact should strive for increasing our workforce's efficiency at a faster rate than reducing the total number of hands available in our economy, if were to redeem our tyrst with destiny of becoming a superpower in next few years.

Best regards,
Deepender

If one goes by biological basis of reproduction,

1. weak species tend to breed faster to balance their gene pool.
2. Weak gets up of its feet early and starts earning its food.
3. Weak usually move in mobs/ herds to protect itself.

The brain which can control these population herds and use them most effectively, is what we need more than anything...

RK^2

 

[rkumar]

Respected Uncle ji,

The biological theory analogy is insightful although I am not sure if I clearly understood what you meant by weak species.

Nevertheless, we surely need to use brains more effectively and higher levels of education/awareness in our society is something we all should strive for. Father of capitalism, Adam Smith, proposed the theory of division of labor; that the "wealth of nations" (GDP in modern times) is directly proportional to the product of number of hands that a nation has and how effectively/efficiently the national work is divided amoungst those thands. We clearly lack efficiency/effectiveness of our workforce, and should plan on increasing that faster instead of increasing the total number of hands. We, infact should strive for increasing our workforce's efficiency at a faster rate than reducing the total number of hands available in our economy, if were to redeem our tyrst with destiny of becoming a superpower in next few years.

Best regards,
Deepender

1. I suppose the total strength of any person is inclusive of his/ her physical strength and mental strength. These two together create financial strength, social strength and spiritual strength. Those who are incapable of facing the dangers on their own strength, try to mobilise others to join, thereby leading to combined defence to survive. This rule applies in every aspect of human and animal activity. When some one reaches to platue in individual strength, he tries to take shelter under numbers.

2. Now coming to human population control. Entire history of practicing birth control among humans is hardly 60 years old. However, on the contrary the Indian and Chinese population has always been higher than most countries of similar size. Most Muslims world ever has been having as many children as they could produce. But still their population has not been as explosive as of India and China. Russian population is going down at alarming rate. This means that population is not just dependent upon birth control practices prevalent in a society.

Honestly speaking, I am not very sure if large population is a curse. Just look at human migration from some of the countries and how their populations have changed demography in many countries. Just think of Indians and Chinese who migrated all over the world and how they are now contributing to progress in their own countries. Europeans did the same during last few centuries. Just think of lots of Indians in USA and many of them making to congress in due course of time. Without firing a single bullet, India will be controlling things over there. Human being are an economic entity as well and in a poor country like India or China this pushes up GDP. Total strength at the disposal of nation becomes very high.

With what ever I know of economics, I think poor people are as important as rich people to complete the cycle. Supply of labour, which is in excess of demand, keeps the prices of services and commodities low. This is why India and China are now seems to be winning the race. Many economic theories are being rewritten...

So in summary I would say that population control needs more scientific and economic debate. It’s not as simple as it appears at first instance.

RK^2

 

[mukeshkumar007]

Respected Sehrawat ji,

I'm not sure I align with you on "danda" approach, though I too feel that could be the best way to get quick results in India similar to China. But after giving it a lot of thought it seems like in our political structure it might be difficult to enforce such measures. We can call it a con of democracy perhaps. Education / and generating more awareness about this issue seems to be a workable solution in our case for now. And one purpose of such a PIL will be just to bring focus/limelight/awareness to this issue.

Dear Deepender bhiya, the purpose so such a PIL will draw the attention of public on this issue. I 100% agree with you on this point. As Rajender Uncleji suggested in his post that the way should be scientifc to controll the population.
By the way. as sehrawat uncleji said "danda" language is the best solution to get desirable output in our country.

 

[raj_rathee]

Anyone interested in understanding purpose and history/issues associated
with public interest litigation should do a search on "public interest
litigation india" on Yahoo/Google.

If I remember correctly Navin Jindal used PIL to argue for allowing
normal Indian citizens to fly the Indian flag on their houses and places
of business.

Dipender, I guess a qualified lawyer in this area might be the best judge
of the suitability of this approach for this specific purpose. It is my
understanding that PIL was primarily for consumer welfare, human rights,
environment and issues of that nature....but like all things it gets abused
in various forms....so what qualifies for this part of the law is probably
based on precedent under common law (I guess that is what India
follows).

I would term the liklihood of success to be low here (and I won't go
into the reasons for my belief....would just end up being very
long winded). On the positive side it might drum up some publicity/
media coverage for the issue.

But I will say that, at a personal level, I feel such a PIL will be an attack
on the freedom of speech of our citizens AS FAR AS THE DESIRABILITY
OF A LARGER POPULATION is concerned. Such a debate/argument
is very academic and I do not believe that we can persuasively argue
for it one way or the other. I quite agree with Chacha Rajendra's
arguments for larger population. I have often thought on those lines
too (perhaps for the mere pleasure of playing Devil's Advocate if nothing
else).

At the same time when speeches are made to incite religious hatred
and stir communal tensions (regardless of the specific issues brought
up...eg. population expansion) then I think the public interest
is being hurt. A strong argument can be made in that situation for
a PIL.

So it is not the fact that these individuals that you mentioned are
talking about increasing their population that should be the issue.
Rather it is the evoking of negative communal and religious sentiment,
that in no way can be argued as benificial to the public, that should
be the target of a PIL. The fact that expanding a member population
was used as a part of these sentiments is immaterial. It is just a tool.

---------------------

Now regarding the couple of people who brought up the "danda" approach !
I really don't know how to be polite here but I am really trying, so forgive
me if I come out as harsh.

It seems very fashionable amongst us Indians to repeatedly conjure up
this "danda" approach as some sort of magical solution to all the ills and
issues plaguing our society. I have often heard absurd statements
such as "Sanjay Ghandi hota toh...", "Hitler jaisa andy aadmi..."...coming
from otherwise fairly educated and seemingly sensible people.

This reeks of some slave mentality which craves for some master
to set things right and give everyone a solid whack on their hinnies
to bring everyone in line. It is akin to saying that we are worthless,
we can't do the right things, we don't have a clue about anything, so
please, please set us straight master ! Perhaps these people would rather prefer to migrate to UK and prostrate at her Majesty's feet rather than live in a free country. Angrezon ne 200 saal se "danda" de rakha tha. Shayaad inko
ussi mein majaa aa gaya hoga !!!! Uski hi aadat pad gayee hogee !!

These very same people were, just a few days ago, critical of the immergency
and Indira and Sanjay. Now I am wondering why they were critical
about all that. Didn't they like the "danda" that immergency provided ?
Didn't they like the fact that all kinds of males were being herded
to hospitals so that their "vas deferens" could be chopped ? That is
as good a solution to population control as any I know ?

Lekin woh "danda" pasand kyun nahin aaya ? When you ask for a "danda"
I am afraid you don't really get to pick on the fine details. You take
the "danda" that you get. Slaves don't choose !

I am really horrified ! What kind of Jats are they who seek to be
governed by "danda" ? Are these the same freedom loving "take no
**** from noone" Jats that I am proud to be a member of ?

Surely not !!!!

Jis din I succumb to such atrocity whereby anyone tells me how many
children I can reproduce, please shoot me. I would have died much before
anyways !

 

[deepender]

Dear Raj,

Your point is really well taken regarding one of the purposes of this PIL being just the fact that these guys are propagating communal hatred in name of population expansion which is hurting peoples interest -- I will add this on to my thought process.


Dear Rajendra Uncle ji and Raj --

As far as the public interest in curtailing population growth is concerned, I appreciate the points both you guys have made regarding a need for more thorough academic debate on this issue before we conclude one way or other.
However, at least for now, I respectfully disagree with you both; I strongly feel we need to act on this issue now. This, however, by no means indicates that I am closing my mind to be persuaded in the other direction and am not ready for a debate. I will lay out some supporting facts to my argument in a seperate message, maybe we do need a debate on this issue. Maybe that's what this PIL may achieve afterall...

(I do think that eventually I might agree with you that at the end of the day it should be an individual's right to chose to reproduce (or not to) afterall; even in this scenario my point being, that we do not need religious organizations pressurising gullible and uneducated individuals into having more children that they haven't taken a conscious decision to produce)

Best regards,
Deepender

Anyone interested in understanding purpose and history/issues associated
with public interest litigation should do a search on "public interest
litigation india" on Yahoo/Google.

If I remember correctly Navin Jindal used PIL to argue for allowing
normal Indian citizens to fly the Indian flag on their houses and places
of business.

Dipender, I guess a qualified lawyer in this area might be the best judge
of the suitability of this approach for this specific purpose. It is my
understanding that PIL was primarily for consumer welfare, human rights,
environment and issues of that nature....but like all things it gets abused
in various forms....so what qualifies for this part of the law is probably
based on precedent under common law (I guess that is what India
follows).

I would term the liklihood of success to be low here (and I won't go
into the reasons for my belief....would just end up being very
long winded). On the positive side it might drum up some publicity/
media coverage for the issue.

But I will say that, at a personal level, I feel such a PIL will be an attack
on the freedom of speech of our citizens AS FAR AS THE DESIRABILITY
OF A LARGER POPULATION is concerned. Such a debate/argument
is very academic and I do not believe that we can persuasively argue
for it one way or the other. I quite agree with Chacha Rajendra's
arguments for larger population. I have often thought on those lines
too (perhaps for the mere pleasure of playing Devil's Advocate if nothing
else).

At the same time when speeches are made to incite religious hatred
and stir communal tensions (regardless of the specific issues brought
up...eg. population expansion) then I think the public interest
is being hurt. A strong argument can be made in that situation for
a PIL.

So it is not the fact that these individuals that you mentioned are
talking about increasing their population that should be the issue.
Rather it is the evoking of negative communal and religious sentiment,
that in no way can be argued as benificial to the public, that should
be the target of a PIL. The fact that expanding a member population
was used as a part of these sentiments is immaterial. It is just a tool.

So in summary I would say that population control needs more scientific and economic debate. It’s not as simple as it appears at first instance.

RK^2

 

[raj_rathee]

Deepender,

I certainly would not want to argue for a larger population. All
said and done, I do think we already have plenty of people and don't need
any more. Any economic and social arguments are well taken. I don't
think any serious debate on this issue is necessary.

The arguments for a larger population will, admittedly, seem to be on the
fringes, and perhaps somewhat facetious. No arguments there.

The proposals for stabilising our population are the more interesting issue.
As noted previously, we are a freedom loving people. Any policies that
DICTATE to us what we should do at such a personal level can
never be justified. As intelligent people we need to find other
approaches to deal with this issue.

Debates centered around that may be more productive and telling.

 

[deepender]

Deepender,

The proposals for stabilising our population are the more interesting issue.
As noted previously, we are a freedom loving people. Any policies that
DICTATE to us what we should do at such a personal level can
never be justified. As intelligent people we need to find other
approaches to deal with this issue.

Debates centered around that may be more productive and telling.

Dear Raj,

I concur with you on this. I don't think a "danda" approach is workable under circumstances, rather such a draconian measure, however successful in China, should be avoided at all costs for sake of our hard won liberty and freedom.

My agenda: I am for spreading education, awareness amoungst the people about what I consider bad aspects of a further growth in our population and then let people chose what they want to do, with freedom and on an individual basis - without any coercion. I am absolutely against so called religious leaders asking people to reproduce more in name of sacred books and religious beliefs.

Think we might be getting closer to an agreement here...

Best,
Deepender

 

[ramksehrawat]

Dear Deepender,

I agree with you that danda should be the last resort in a democracy but the mindset of Indians is such that this seems to be the only solution. I vividly remember when we, as kids had hardly learnt to read, there used to be big hoardings on almost all major crossings and on main roads almost all over India reading "do ya teen bachche hote hain ghar main achhe". So many schemes, so much incentives and even cajoling have yielded hardly any results even after four decades. According to me, this seems to be the only way left now.

 

[raj_rathee]

Deepender:

You mention education. That is exactly the drum that
I like to beat as well. But here too there are many aspects
to consider. Education is one aspect but it is not the
be all and end all. Note that here I am using "Education"
to be synonymous with "Awareness of Population Issues", as
opposed to an academic facility. The former is being discussed
here. The latter, I believe, if acheived on a large scale, can
quickly transform us to a highly developed powerhouse....but that
is the subject of some other discussion.

Unfortunately, people tend to associate education as some
sort of ultimate solution. They tend to believe that somehow
raising hoardings of "Hum do humare do !" and TV
advertisements of "Nirodh ka Istemal Karo" will magically translate
into a whole nation of population conscious citizens, who will
all collectively march with the drum beat.

Yes I agree that all these do raise the level of awareness
amongst the populace, and help to develop a framework whereby
people become conscious of some of these issues. But I think
that it stops there.

I believe that this notion of saturating the media with
such coverage will not be effective after a point. On the one
hand it will continue to be preaching to the choir (the middle
class of educated and professional urban people who already have
bought into the notion that a smaller family is a happier
and more prosperous family). On the other hand it will continue
to ineffectually bounce off the gray matter of those
with the greatest propensity to procreate, the already
economically disadvantaged and unconnected members of our
society.

And why is that so ?

I think it is because we treat this second class of
society as uneducated brutes who don't know what is good for
them, and that by bombarding them with these images we
will somehow magically educate them and open their eyes
to the reality that we have come to see.

It won't work ! Thing is, these brutes are damn smart. Having
evolved through centuries of misery and hard bounces they
are actually way smarter than they get the credit for. They
actually know that given their present circumstances having more
kids is GOOD for them.

And, frankly, who are we to second guess them ?

What I am trying to get at in my own long winded way is to
say that we should accept the premise that these
folks are smart and know what is good for them. Then we
need to understand why they still continue to have large
families. Having done that we need to change/mitigate these
reasons so that these very same people begin to think like
the rest of us middle class, so called progressive, people. What is
it that makes us different from them ? Or for that matter
what is it that makes western society (that is actually struggling
with poulation decline) different from majority Indian society ?
The answer to this can be very telling...and will show us the way
to deal with population issues.

Let me try to take a stab at potential reasons for having
more kids. My attempt is by no means comprehensive. Rather
it is illustrative of what I am trying to say. I am sure
members can come up with plenty more reasons. But here
are the ones that jump out at me:

1) Our society still very much works on the "Jiski Laathi
Uski Bhains" paradigm. Go to any village. Jis ghar mein
sabtae faaltoo chorre, uss ghar ki faaltto thaad. Power in
numbers !

2) In our society there is no security for old age. Old folks
are totally reliant on their offspring. The more of them, the
better chances of support in old age. Security through numbers !

3) With still relatively high mortality rates, the more offspring
you have the greater liklihood that at least some of them will
survive to adulthood. Remember the days of our grandparents...
of the 6-7 births often 2-3 made it to adulthood. Insurance
through numbers !

4) More working hands, greater economic security. If one
or two become handicapped there will still be others working
hands to feed these mouths. Remember how the elder brother
often financed the education and upbringing of the younger ones !
This system of large families has always had an inbuilt support
mechanism !

....Well let me stop there. I think I have illustrated my point
well enough. Members are free to think for themselves for other
reasons.

Unless our society reaches a point where these reasons (all very
valid and justified mind you) can be mitigated by coming up
with alternate support mechanisms (as has been done in the
developed world), we will continue to see the issues that we
are seeing. It is a survival system that has evolved over
centuries and centuries, and cannot be wished away.

Only proactive social, economic and political measures can
deal with these. Once these "brutes" see better alternatives
they will automatically migrate to our way of thinking. That
is how we are here...are we not ?

There is not much scope for a "danda" here.

 

[raj_rathee]

Oh, I guess I should also try to address your concerns about these
Mullahs and Bander brigade chieftains being able to cause increases in
populations. Indeed, all such things may and probably do have some
trickle down effect.

But, frankly, in the large scheme of things I will go back to the argument that we give our brutes too little credit to make their own decisions. I don't
see too many of these "brutes" rushing home to jump into bed after
listening to these speeches. The larger impact will be increased communal
hatred/suspicion, not an increased population.

I don't have a handle on the muslim psyche, but I cannot imagine
any Hindu hell bent on procreation after listening to these Kacchawalas.
I think the average Ramu will laugh these folks out of their Khaki
Kacchas. But the fear against Islam and muslims WILL perpetuate.
I believe the same can be extended to a muslim listening to the
dhadi-waalas.

At the end of the day, Mr Brute will know how many children are good for him at a personal level....rest of the society be damned.

 

[deepender]

1) Our society still very much works on the "Jiski Laathi
Uski Bhains" paradigm. Go to any village. Jis ghar mein
sabtae faaltoo chorre, uss ghar ki faaltto thaad. Power in
numbers !

2) In our society there is no security for old age. Old folks
are totally reliant on their offspring. The more of them, the
better chances of support in old age. Security through numbers !

3) With still relatively high mortality rates, the more offspring
you have the greater liklihood that at least some of them will
survive to adulthood. Remember the days of our grandparents...
of the 6-7 births often 2-3 made it to adulthood. Insurance
through numbers !

4) More working hands, greater economic security. If one
or two become handicapped there will still be others working
hands to feed these mouths. Remember how the elder brother
often financed the education and upbringing of the younger ones !
This system of large families has always had an inbuilt support
mechanism !

Dear Raj,

This discussion has been extremely enlightning for me and hopefully everybit worthwile -- I think your analysis is very good. We need to understand the root causes of what causes people to reproduce at higher rates than others in order to address those very causes.

One assumption that I perhaps am still not totally convinced by, however, is regarding believing all Indians are making a consious decision to reproduce; some cases in point:
A recent survey in some north-eastern states recorded that about 30% of people had never heard about the word "Condom"
The same survey in UP muslims recorded that over half of them percieved any family planning measure against God's will (this in back drop of Indonesia implementing one of the most sucessful family planning programs in history of Islamic states)
So, I still think there is some scope left to continue the "education" route. We need to make sure that everyone is taking a conscious and educated decision when he/she does chose to reproduce.

This leads to your point which now I concede, after reading yours and Rajendra Uncle jis arguments, might be the most important one. We need to attack the root causes...all your four points are well taken and we need to analyze further...
To counter these we need to highlight simple facts like increasingly smaller land-holdings amoungst our farming community, more unemployment amoungst previously farming dependent youth with little land left to have an economically meaningful means to life now, much higher life expentancy compared to what previous generation saw, constant depletion of essential resources(to cite an example on a microlevel -- Rohtak's tubewell bore underground water-level depth used to be 40-50 ft a few years back, now is about 175 ft and sinking deeper each day).

Steven Levitt in his recent book called "Freakonomics" quotes our own Amartya Sen as noting that human behaviour is driven by incentives -- be it economic, social, or moral. We need to create circumstances which provide any or all of these incentives for people from all walks of life to have a smaller family.

All 4 points you mentioned seemed like some sort of incentives for certain individuals to have more children in contradiction to the greater good for society. I agree with you 100% on this point now, we should focus on creating conditions so that these incentives are trumped by reasons we create for such individuals to have lesser number of children....

Till we do this any draconian 'danda' like measure is bound to fail.

Deepender

 

[ozyjat]

What can India do?

Hi,
Some have put forward the argument that the Muslims being a minority feel threatened. It is beleived that their increase in numbers may be a reaction to this fear. This is evident from the growth of the the Muslim population in India as compared to Pakistan. India's muslim population growth is relatively less than Pakistan's and this is precarious under the circumstances that Muslims have no direct threat in Pakistan. Between 1961 and 1998, Pakistan's population (96.28 % Muslim) grew from 43 million to 132 million - a growth of 207 per cent -- at the annual growth rate of 3.092%. The annual growth of Muslim population in India between 1961 and 2001 has been 2.7367%.

Now, understanding that Population is India's biggest problem, What can India do?

If India and the Hindus do not want to go the same route as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afganiatan , the immediate things that India should do to prevent exploding its Muslim population are:

- Without any further delay implement Uniform Civil Code for all religions across India.

- Implement and enforce strict birth control measures.

- Strict border control to stop any illegal immigration of Muslims from Bangladesh and eventually from Pakistan.

- Abolish article 370 and make the State of J&K open to all Indians.

These are the preliminary steps that should be taken immediately.

And above all, propagation of hate against other religions in the name of religion should be made a crime.

Any "romantic" and "sentimental" ideas regarding reunification of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh should be summarily dismissed. Such action would result in "Islamization" of India within the next few decades.

If India wants to preserve its culture, ethos and integrity, these are the minimum first steps that should be taken immediately.

Publication of Census 2001 is a timely reminder of the Muslim population explosion. Hindus can afford to ignore it only at the peril of survival of their own civilization.

 

[ozyjat]

What can India do?

Twice!!!!!