Coercion in a Soft State: The Family-Planning Program of India: Part 2: The Sources of Coercion

Abstract

The family planning program in India has not been a success despite much official promotion. The author points out that in the period she studied (the late 1960s and early 1970s) those who did submit to vasectomies were often coerced into doing so refuting a generally held notion that the Indian birth control program was voluntary. The amount of participation in the vasectomy program varied from state to state and more highly economically developed states reported higher rates than did some underdeveloped states. Monetary incentives were used to influence men into having vasectomies making for considerable numbers of vasectomies in low-income groups many of whose members were also illiterate and ignorant of their civil rights. There was not much real education about the proper meaning and purpose of family planning. The author states that India remains increasingly distant from a popular birth-control movement that family planning is very often associated with sterilization and that public awareness of the full range and value of modern contraceptive techniques remains a distant goal. She regrets that the civil liberties of underprivileged Indians are impinged upon by government programs often unsuccessful to reduce Indias population.