ABSTRACT
This essay reviews certain pressing problems confronting India on the demographic front, problems which unfortunately seem to attract little policy attention. On the other hand, what is perceived to be India’s major population problem is the illusory and divisive one of ‘religious demography’. In the matter of public health and sanitation, with specific reference to the problem of open defecation, the policy response is again one of an insufficient appreciation of the gravity of the problem and of inadequate response to it. These are long-standing structural issues of development in India and are elaborated on in the chapter.
