Kerala Population Policy

Kerala Population Policy

1. Why?

   • Kerala is the most densely populated state in India
     • 3 times denser than the national average
   • India's population growth rate is the highest in the world.
     • In the last 10 years, the population increased by 181 million
   • Kerala's population of 32 million makes up 3.4% of India's population

2. What the policy involves

   • Improving education standards for both girls and boys
     • Less than half of women in India are literate, but in Kerala, 85% of women are literate
     • More Indian Girls go to university than boys now
   • Providing adult literacy lessons in towns
   • Educating people on the benefits of smaller families
   • Reducing infant mortality rate (which was 12 per 1000 infants)
   • Improving children's health with vaccination programmes
   • Providing free contraception
   • Encouraging later marriage
   • Only allowing maternity leave for the first two children
   • Providing retirement benefits for people with smaller families
   • Follows a land reform programme
     • No family was allowed more than 8 ha, so larger families were at a disadvantage
   • Emancipation of women: More focus on work

3. Efficacy

   • Weaknesses
     • Initially expensive for the government
     • Could lead to an ageing population
     • Not as fast as the one child policy, as it is less strict
   • Strengths
     • Not as oppressive as the one child policy. The people don't feel so much pressure
     • The policy brought about the improvement of medical facilities
     • The adult literacy rate will increase
     • Kerala now has the lowest birth rate in India

4. When?

   • 1952 (First country to launch a national family planning programme)