3 - The Government Programme

Summary

FORMATION OF THE SINGAPORE FAMILY PLANNING AND POPULATION BOARD (SFPPB)

It was noted in the preceding chapter that since 1957, the Family Planning Association (FPA) had, on numerous occasions, requested that the Ministry of Health take over all the family planning activities it conducted in government institutions, but the government had consistently turned down the request. It was in response to the request submitted by the Association in January 1965 that the government finally announced, on 13 March 1965, the appointment of a three-man Review Committee to look into this matter. The terms of reference were to determine which of the family planning activities were to be transferred from the Association to the Health Ministry, to fix the quantum of annual grant for 1965 and subsequent years for the Association, and to resolve the disposition of the staff employed by the Association. The Review Committee held a total of seven meetings between 8 April 1965 and 9 June 1965 and submitted its unanimous report to the Minister for Health on 29 June 1965. Briefly, the report recommended that all except three of the clinics should be transferred to the government and a grant of S$100,000 for 1965 and S$10,000 for 1966 and subsequent years be given to the Association.

Some three months later, on 27 September 1965, a White Paper on Family Planning was tabled in Parliament, generally endorsing the recommendations of the Review Committee. In addition to including the report of the Review Committee as an appendix, the 25-page White Paper spelled out in considerable detail the various aspects of a national population policy which the Singapore Government proposed to implement. It announced, among other things, a five-year plan to recruit 180,000 new acceptors during the period 1966 to 1970 and the establishment of a statutory authority to take charge of the proposed government family planning programme. The aim of the plan was “to liberate our women from the burden of bearing and raising an unnecessarily large number of children and as a consequence to increase human happiness for all”.

Thus in December 1965, the Singapore Family Planning and Population Board Act 1965 was passed by Parliament without any debate and came into force on 7 January 1966.