About the Speaker:
Leela Visaria is an Honorary Professor and a former Director at Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad. She has worked extensively on historical demography, health, family planning, education and demographic transition. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and the co-author or editor of five books including Twenty-first Century India: Population, Economy, Human Development and the Environment (edited jointly with Tim Dyson and Robert Cassen; 2004); and Abortion in India: Ground Realities (edited with Vimala Ramachandran; 2007). She was elected the first President of the Asian Population Association for 2009-2010. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University.
About the Lecture:
Since the 1920s, India had been concerned about its population size, growth in numbers, and the measures to be advocated and implemented to arrest the increase in population. The pursuit continues. Dr. Visaria will discuss what measures were taken, why they did not work in the past, and why the self-proclaimed goal of attaining population stabilization continues to elude policy makers and program managers even today. She will also discuss to what extent policies have incorporated an evidence-base in their formulation and implementation, and the social determinants of family planning which need to be addressed by policies in the future.