Population control and coercion.

New Delhi -- Four years ago, the Indian government announced a new population control policy that would be "free of coercion and targets." Sadly, that has not come to pass. Today, government officials hold out financial incentives to businesses that "persuade" employees to be sterilized. In a number of "two-children" Indian states, parents with more than two children cannot contest village and municipal elections, and are denied housing, loans, government jobs, and even admission to government educational institutions.

To meet government targets, hospitals are required to promote sterilization and abortion, and Catholic workers are told that they will lose their jobs if they do not go along with the government's population policy. Hideously, each nurse has a target of 30 sterilization surgeries per year in order to claim the annual salary increment; and those who accompany people to the 'sterilization camps' are financially rewarded for each "patient."

The Catholic bishops openly condemn the government's actions and rightly point out that education, not sterilization and abortion, is the key to responsible parenthood. The bishops point out that, in states where abuse is rampant, they are helpless to speak out, because there is no Christian population. (From files of National Catholic Register, Jan. 9, 2005, and Indian Catholic, Jan. 14, 2005.)