India sitting on population volcano: Azad

Last Updated: Thursday, July 23, 2009, 21:45

Tags: India population, Ghulam Azad, Health Minister

Chennai: The country was 'sitting on a volcano' as far as population explosion was concerned and steps should be taken to effectively control this growth, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today said.

"We are sitting on a volcano. But nobody is talking about birth control. The country has to rise to the occasion," Azad, who recently advocated late marriage as part of birth control measures, said.

Noting that the country has 17 per cent of the world's population, but only two per cent of land mass, he said land for agriculture was diminishing, and they are being used to develop infrastructure like Railways and real estate.

Azad was speaking after launching the Tamil Nadu government's Rs 573 crore 'Kalaignar Insurance scheme' for one crore poor people. The scheme envisages giving an insurance cover of Rs one lakh each to families whose annual income is less than Rs 72,000 per annum for life saving treatment in quality government and private hospitals.

Azad announced allocation of Rs 100 crore towards infrastructure for National Centre for Reproductive and Child Care, coming up at the Madras Medical College (MMC) here.

This would impart training for doctors and nurses on the "good practices" of reproductive care. A Rs 250 crore Plasma Research Centre would also be set up in Tamil Nadu, he said.

Bureau Report

First Published: Thursday, July 23, 2009, 21:45

Comments

Shombhoo - Amsterdam
Dear Mr. Azad, You have pointed the right thing. But your community is primarily responsible for creating such volcano. Can you do something to make them undersand that giving birth of children has nothing with religion? If you can, India can thank you as an able minister. But you yourself don`t follow thin in your life, so how you can preach this to others.

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Suruchi -
A Rajnder Sachar type like commission must be set up to identify those districts and communities which produce too many children and government must cut subsidies and help to those communities who are more interested in quantity than quality of children.