How India tried to stop baby boom with calendars, peas

Instead of promoting contraceptives, newly independent India toyed with impractical family planning ideas for several years

Photo source 

Wednesday brought the news that India’s total fertility rate has slipped to 2. “Population explosion” is officially over. Part of the credit for this goes to the long-running family planning programme, but few know that it made a floundering start in the 1950s.

In 1951, we were a nation of 361 million people – a billion less than now, but the government was already concerned about population growth. “The increase of population in India constitutes a big national problem,” health minister Rajkumari Amrit Kaur told Parliament on December 20, 1956.

The government was keen to do something about it, but didn’t want to begin “any countrywide scheme of control on a matter like this without a very careful study of all factors involved,” Kaur had said on July 29, 1952. Yet, all it had done until then was set up three centres for pilot studies on a birth control measure that both scientists and planners did not find feasible.

Rhythm’s gonna get you

The government’s pet birth control measure was called the ‘rhythm method’. Instead of contraceptives it required knowledge of a woman’s menstrual cycle. Couples had to take a course in which they were told to have intercourse on days when ovulation was least likely.

Even in 1952 experts spoke against the rhythm method. By Kaur’s own admission: “Some of the women’s organisations have given their opinion. They are in favour of the use of mechanical contraceptives.”

The birth-control pill was not available then but condoms and foam tablets were. Did the government try to popularise these? Asked whether the government intended to subsidise contraceptives for the poor, Kaur said on September 13, 1954: “No, government is not supplying contraceptives to anybody.”

Nor did the government give grants to institutions and experts for research in family planning. Its entire focus was on the complicated rhythm method for which only three training centres  –  two in New Delhi and one in Ramanagaram, Mysore  – had been set up.

The Ramanagaram centre, for example, covered 14 villages with altogether 941 married women under the age of 40. Of them, only 712 enrolled in the course with their husbands. From the time the programme started in September-October 1952, to the end of June 1953, “only 385 menstruating women had been actively followed for various lengths of time.”

(A ‘Rythmeter’ chart used for fertility planning in the US, in the 1940s. Photo source)

The rhythm method was impractical any way you looked at it. “Tentative advice on the rhythm method is given after the examination of three menstrual cycles. Final rhythm is worked out on the basis of six menstrual cycles,” the government said. To know their safe dates, couples had to use aids like beads and calendar cards, and many were not happy using them. Women also did not like the invasion of their privacy for drawing up rhythm charts.

No regard for facts

Ignoring the difficulties, the government continued promoting the rhythm method. During a discussion on September 13, 1954, MP Violet Alva cited an expert’s advice that it “was not acceptable to the countryside and that some other method had to be thought of...”

The health minister replied: “Many people say many things. The government should consider them all and see what is feasible for the country.”

Dr Seeta Parmanand, another MP, asked, “What is the percentage of people, both doctors and social workers, who are in favour of the rhythm method?”

The minister said, “Government has no information as to what proportion favours which method.” Nor did the government have data about the effectiveness of the rhythm method.

From dates to peas

Instead of adopting straightforward birth control measures, the government then wasted more time and money on ideas like developing oral contraceptives from field peas because a Mumbai-based scientist had shown that pea extract caused abortions in animals when taken in very high doses.

It also released a movie titled ‘Planned Parenthood’ in English and six other languages, and started a free magazine, ‘Family Planning News,’ with a circulation of 10,000 copies, but neither campaign made an impact.

A different tune

For six years, the government stubbornly shrugged off criticism of the rhythm method, and then gave it a quiet burial. On September 16, 1958, when Dr Parmanand asked, “Whether the experiment on rhythmic method of family planning has been stopped,” the new health minister, D P Karmarkar, replied, “Experiments exclusively on rhythmic method have been stopped.”

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Peas and rhythms: How India lost its population battle in the 1950s

Back in my school days the social studies textbooks said India’s population was 700 million. Thirty years later, it has doubled and we are worried. But worrying about population growth is an old Indian ritual by now. On December 20, 1956, India’s then health minister Rajkumari Amrit Kaur said this in Parliament:

“The increase of population in India constitutes a big national problem.”

The country’s population at the time was a third of what it is now, but growing fast. In 1951, we were a country of 361 million. In just a decade, we increased by 21% to 439 million. With that population and today’s GDP we could have been reasonably well-off. But if our leadership was alert to the population explosion all those years ago, how did we continue multiplying for the next 60 years?

Neither urgency nor direction

Did government of India not try hard enough to check population growth, or did it stray in the wrong direction? Both. India’s ‘family planning’ or birth-control effort started soon after Independence, but it lacked urgency and direction.

“While government are not unaware of the problem, it is not possible for them to initiate any countrywide scheme of control on a matter like this without a very careful study of all factors involved,” Kaur had told Parliament on July 29, 1952.

It was a reasonable approach, but was the government really making “a very careful study”? All it had done until then was set up three experimental centres for pilot studies on a birth-control measure that both scientists and planners did not find feasible. Steamrolling all opposition, the government wasted several years on this measure.

The rhythm folly

The government’s pet birth control measure was called ‘rhythm method’. Instead of contraceptives it required knowledge of a woman’s menstrual cycle. Couples who took the course were advised to have intercourse on days when ovulation was least likely to occur.

Even in 1952 doctors spoke against the method. Kaur admitted: “Some of the women’s organisations have given their opinion. They are in favour of the use of mechanical contraceptives.”

The pill was not available then but condoms and foam tablets were. Did the government try to popularize these? Asked whether the government intended to subsidise contraceptives for the poor, on September 13, 1954, Kaur replied: “No, government is not supplying contraceptives to anybody.”

What about grants to institutions and experts for research in family planning? The government did not distribute any funds to them. Its focus was on the complicated rhythm method that required careful training.

There were only three centres  –  two in New Delhi and one in Ramanagaram, Mysore  –  to train married couples in the method, and here’s the government’s own statement about Ramanagaram from August 24, 1953.

The centre covered 14 villages with a total population of 8,000. Training was reserved for couples among whom the wife was aged under 40 years. The area had 941 such couples, and 712 signed up.

The programme started in September-October 1952, but “by the end of June 1953, only 385 menstruating women had been actively followed for various lengths of time. Tentative advice on the rhythm method is given after the examination of three menstrual cycles. Final rhythm is worked out on the basis of six menstrual cycles.”

How was such a slow and complicated scheme expected to cover entire India?

To know their safe dates couples had to use aids like beads and calendar cards, and many were not happy using them. Women also did not like the invasion of their privacy for drawing up rhythm charts.

Headstrong course

The government ignored all advice. These are some questions and answers from the September 13, 1954 debate in Parliament:

Mrs Violet Alva: “Dr V K R Rao, who was the delegate at the Population Control Conference, had stated that the rhythm method was not acceptable to the countryside and that some other method had to be thought of…”

Rajkumari Amrit Kaur: “Many people say many things. The government should consider them all and see what is feasible for the country.”

Dr Mrs Seeta Parmanand: “What is the percentage of people, both doctors and social workers, who are in favour of the rhythm method?”

Rajkumari Amrit Kaur: “Government has no information as to what proportion favours which method.”

Dr D H Variava: “May I know if there are any statistics about lowering of births after the adoption of this family planning for about 2 or 3 years?”

Rajkumari Amrit Kaur: “No statistics can be arrived at after one year.”

Peas, not pills

Instead of pushing straightforward birth control measures, the government also wasted time and money on ideas like developing oral contraceptives from field peas.

In 1955–56 one Mumbai-based scientist, Dr Khanolkar, carried out research on the subject, and later work was continued by two doctors at All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health. Tests on animals showed that pea extract caused abortions when taken in very high doses, but it did not find use as a human contraceptive.

Government also released a movie, ‘Planned Parenthood’, in English and six other languages, and started a free magazine, ‘Family Planning News’, with a circulation of 10,000 copies, but neither campaign had an impact.

End of rhythm

For six years, the government stubbornly shrugged off criticism of the rhythm method and then just as it had sprung the scheme on India, it gave it a quiet burial.

On September 16, 1958, Dr Mrs Seeta Parmanand asked this question in Parliament: “Whether the experiment on rhythmic method of family planning has been stopped?”

The new health minister, D P Karmakar, replied: “Experiments exclusively on rhythmic method have been stopped.”

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