Scared off by the popular backlash to family planning excesses during the Emergency, India’s political and social leadership abandoned the subject of population growth decades ago. The 10-year goals set out in the Population Policy 2000 were mostly neglected. So when Shanta Kumar, Himachal Pradesh’s former chief minister, resurrected this long forgotten issue and even sought the prime minister’s intervention, it came as a surprise. His fears are genuine but his idea of an all-party meeting is off-track. The problem does not need a political solution.
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