Karnataka Health Minister clarifies his remarks on ‘modern Indian women’

ollowing the controversy that erupted after the state Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar’s comments on Indian women’s paradigm shift of thinking, the Minister issued a clarification on Monday and said his statement was based on a survey and a small part of the speech was taken out of context. He also urged to watch the complete video.

The Minister said that his statement was based on the findings of the YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey. “The findings of YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey shows that, among millennials, 19% aren’t interested in either children or marriage. Another 8% want children but are not interested in marriage. Among post-millennials (or Gen Z adults), 23% aren’t interested in either children or marriage. As in the case of millennials, 8% want children but are not interested in marriage. There are very few gender-wise differences in these trends. It is applicable to both boys and girls,” said the Minister.

Sudhakar further said that unlike western society, which puts the impetus on “individualism”, the Indian society is “collectivistic” in that it promotes interdependence and co-operation, with the family forming the focal point of this social structure. The Indian and Asian families are, therefore, far more involved in caring for their members.

He said that the solution to mental health issues can be found in a traditional family and its value systems.

Earlier, speaking at the programme organised by NIMHANS here on Sunday, the Minister said, “I am sorry to say this, lots of modern women in India want to stay single. Even if they get married, they don’t want to give birth. They want surrogacy. So there is a paradigm shift in our thinking, which is not good.”

He further said that we are moving towards westernisation. “We are going in a western way, we don’t want our parents to live with us,” said Sudhakar.