Extracts from an Inaugural Address to the Third International Conference on Planned Parenthood (Bombay: Family Planning Association of India) in 1952

Abstract

An advice given to students in our country according to tradition is — I will give you the Sanskrit first: ‘matr devo bhava, pitr devo bhava, acarya devo bhava, atithi devo bhava, prajatantum mat vyavacchesih” — “do not cut off the thread of offspring”. Students, when they complete their careers are called upon to enter the state of the householder and there the advice given to them is “do not cut off the thread of offspring.” In other words, they are called upon to marry and produce offspring. We never regard sex as something impious or obscene. It is the duty, normally speaking — we are not making laws for exceptional cases — of young students when they leave the universities to enter into the state of marriage, and there the main purpose of marriage is inculcated as the production of offspring. Marriage is the union of man and woman, and family life is enlarged and completed by the arrival of children.