The Indian Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s recent statement advocating TV as a ‘birth control pill’ to the rural populace lacks conviction and is a childish argument. How specious it is to argue that after watching TV till late in the night, the rural people will fall asleep and they wouldn’t get a chance to produce babies.

How hollow is this argument. Who knows, after watching TV programmes till late at night, they might enjoy more sex and produce more babies. Is that actually a solution to birth control in a country like ours where the access to birth control programmes and facilities are far from satisfactory? I cannot agree with the Minister. And the kind of stuff which are available in the TV programmes, especially in the late hours, will only strengthen the plea that in fact the people will be more prone to enjoy more sex and produce more babies if they are not given education and awareness on birth control methods.

The Minister has completely ignored the reality that lack of development is the biggest driver of high birth rate in the country.

By such hollow arguments, the Minister has deviated from the core issue. The issue that has to be addressed is the education. People should be educated and made aware about the problems that are attached to a big family. The state of Kerala is the biggest example where the literacy is 100 per cent and the birth rate has come down drastically during the last some years.

It is not the TVs but the education that made the stark difference, Dear Azad Sir.