Demography India Vol.25, No. I (1996)

From the Chief Editor’s Desk

THERE has been a change in the office bearers of IASP consequent to the elections held in April 1996. Prof. K. B. Pathak, Director, International Institute for Population Sciences (UPS) Bombay has been elected as the President for a two-year term, Prof. Sumati Kulkarni and Prof. B. D. Mishra are the Vice-Presidents; Dr. Arvind Pandey and Prof. G. Rama Rao of UPS are General Secretary and Treasurer respectively. .. For all practical purposes, the IASP, which has been functioning from Delhi since its formation, has been shifted to International Institute for Population Sciences, Bombay. I wish the new members of the Executive Committee, President and other office bearers all the best during their tenure of office. As a follow-up of the changes in the office bearers of the IASP, there has been some changes in the Editorial board and the Editorial Advisory Board of Demography India. At the request of the Executive Committee, I have agreed to continue as the Chief Editor and similarly Mr. R. P. Tyagi will continue as the Managing Editor and the journal will continue to be published from Delhi. There are some changes in the old and new Editorial Boards and the names of the incoming and outgoing members are given on the back of the cover page.

I take this opportunity to thank the outgoing members of the Editorial Board and the Editorial Advisory Board for their enthusiastic support and advice given to me during their tenure and welcome the new members. I am sure, with their experience and expertise, we will be able to improve further on the quality and content of Demography India. In this Issue, we decided to include five articles on the special theme of Induced Abortion. Four of these articles were selected from among those presented at the ILJSSP Seminar on "The Social and Political Context of Abortion'' held at Thiruvananthapuram in March 1996 and with demographic orientation. These articles were recommended for publication in Demography India by Prof. Alaka Basu, who was the convenor of the Seminar. The articles were also subjected to peer review as required for publication in Demography India. An invited paper on "Abortion in India: An Overview" by Ms. Rami Chhabra has also been included in the volume. Thus the volume consists of two sets of papers (1) a selection among those routinely submitted for publication in Demography India and accepted after necessary peer review and (2) five papers on Induced Abortion including four submitted at the IUSSP Conference at Thiruvananthapuram. The Editorial Board decided to include these selected papers on induced abortion since all available empiric al evidences are indicating that the incidence of induced abortion is rising rapidly in many developing countries including India. Unfortunately, there has also been a sharp increase in the incidence of illegally conducted back street induced abortions in India inspite of the MTP Act of 1972 that allows for such abortions to be done under safe medical supervision in designated places. With the growing concern for reproductive health of women and the adverse effects of induced abortion on mother's health well documented in a number of studies, the topic of induced abortion is likely to become socially, medically, ethically and politically a controversial issue in the coming years in developing countries as it has already become in developed countries, and the articles chosen for publication touch upon some of these potentially volatile issues.

K. Srinivasan
Chief Editor, Demography India