Discuss the formation of India's population policy after independence.

In India, the most important and the only component affecting the population is fertility. Regarding the other two components, namely, mortality and migration, migration did not have a significant effect on the population of India. As for international migration, the volume of such migration is not very large, and migration within the country is a constitutional privilege and the question of any special policy in this regard does not arise. Therefore, when the population policy of India is analysed, only fertility and mortality may be taken into consideration. India's population policy is a fertility –oriented one. The anti-natalist policy of the country is one of the first in the world. If one looks into the history of the population growth and the population policy of the country, one can see that a serious concern about a population policy came into existence only after independence. The British rulers of the country were not interested, either in the quantity or the quality of the Indian population. So, they were not interested in formulating a population policy for India. They took no interest in family welfare and family planning programmes. But a section of the Indian elite took interest in the population of the country between the two World Wars, though the visible elite were interested only in the freedom movement. The high rate of mortality and density in some pockets was pointed out by a few scientists. The census in

1931 indicated an increase in the population and many people warned the country about the consequences of this increase in the coming years. They also advocated the need for a population policy for spreading the practice of birth control.

Between 1916 and 1947 many events related to population occurred.

In 1925, the first Family Planning Clinic was opened in Bombay by R.D. Karve. The same year Rabindranath Tagore wrote: 'I am of the opinion that the birth control movement is a great movement, not only because it will save women from enforced and undesirable maternity, but also because it will help the cause of peace by lessening the number of surplus population of the country, scrambling for food and space outside its own rightful limits. In a hunger -stricken country like India, it is a cruel crime to thoughtlessly bring more children into existence than can be properly taken care of, causing endless sufferings to them and imposing a degrading condition upon the whole family.' Then, the Mysore Government took the first step in opening the first Government Birth Control Clinic in the world. In 1931, the senate of the Madras University accepted the proposal to impart instructions regarding the methods of conception control. In 1935, the Indian National Congress set up a national committee under the chairmanship of Jawaharlal Nehru and gave the following recommendations.

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