Focus

Highlights

1. 1.

   The report states that women and girls continue to be denied their right to make decisions about their bodies. Data published in 2023 from 68 countries showed that 24 per cent of women cannot refuse sex, 25 per cent cannot make healthcare decisions, and 11 per cent cannot make decisions on contraception.

2. 2.

   The UN projects that the rate of global population growth has slowed to less than 1 percent since 2020, mainly due to declining fertility rates. The report states that about two-thirds of the global population lives in regions with fertility rates at or below 2.1 children per woman.

3. 3.

   Wealthy and high-consumption countries either are indifferent about their fertility rates or seek to increase them, a pattern also seen in actual fertility rates. In India, proposed two-child policies in 2021 led to concerns about sex-selective abortions, male child preference, and increased violence against women.

4. 4.

   The report states that instead of reducing the number of people, we should invest in education, quality healthcare, food security, clean energy, and gender equality. It adds that policies to influence fertility rates are not necessarily coercive and can take many forms, stating that efforts to influence fertility are often associated with decline in levels of human freedoms.

5. 5.

   The report states that there is no perfect population size and no reliable way to achieve a specific population size. Fertility rates fluctuate for a wide variety of reasons that are beyond the reach of government-mandated policies. Policymakers should instead focus on helping individuals achieve their reproductive well-being. The path forward lies in demographic resilience and not control, the report adds.

6. 6.

   The term "family planning" should encompass all aspects of reproductive planning, including infertility care.

   
   

   Focus and Factoids by Arunima Mandwariya.
   
   

   PARI Library's health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.