Asia has, indeed, played the leading role in the world in the field of population policy, especially in birth-rate control by means of family planning. The first Asian Population Congress, held in 1963, overcame the taboo of population control theory that operated on the stage of the United Nations, and India took the leadership here. Needless to say, the entire Asian consensus has made a great contribution to combined world activities.
Japan was the first country to attain the conversion to population replacement level in Asia, and with a slight time lag, this achievement was rapidly duplicated in the East and Southeast Asian countries. Total fertility rates in the all East Asian countries, except for Mongolia, have reached levels below replacement level. The index for the whole of East Asia also is below the replacement level, at 1.88. Such a drastic decline in the birth-rate had not been expected. Among Southeast Asian countries, Singapore and Thailand have also attained birth-rates below replacement level. Other countries in the region and in other regions as well have mirrored the trend.
In South and Middle Asia, where India is located, only Sri Lanka has achieved a decline in the birth-rate low enough to be very close to the replacement level. India, the giant of the region, yet maintains a total fertility rate as high as 3.39. However, this figure denotes a notable achievement, as the rate was 5.4 between 1970 and 1975, so that the average number of births per mother has decreased by two in the past twenty years. India is the country that took the initiative in adopting family planning as government policy after the Second World War. The popularization of family planning has never been easy amid the various constraints represented by different religions, the decentralization of power, a diversity of languages, and the caste system. Prosecution of the policy at certain parts of the bottom level of the country's administration was so extreme that political disorder was created, miring the implementation of family planning. This, in turn, slowed down reduction in the birth-rate in India.
However, it is certain that the steady decline of birth-rates in recent years will continue further. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) of India for 1992 and 1993, the average number of children desired by married females from the ages of 13 to 49 is still as high as 2.97).
