S. Chandrasekhar; Official Warned of India Overpopulation
Sripati Chandrasekhar, 83, a former minister of the Indian government who warned of overpopulation in his country, died of a stroke in La Jolla on June 14.
Born in India, Chandrasekhar earned his doctorate from New York University in 1944. He also worked in the U.S. Office of Strategic Services during the war as an expert on Indian demography.
As India’s minister of health and family planning in the late 1960s under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, he urged sterilization for men, easily obtainable abortions for women and voluntary sexual abstinence for one year for married couples.
He warned of dire consequences if India’s 1967 population of 500 million grew by 100 million or more and feared his country would turn to communism due to overpopulation and poverty. India’s population today is about 1 billion.
Chandrasekhar wrote hundreds of articles and 32 books. He split his time between homes in La Jolla and southern India and taught in his home country, Europe and the United States.
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