PIP: The 3-day siminar "Hum Do, Hamare Do," sponsored by Amrita Bazar Patrika and Jugantar, was addressed by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and other top-ranking national and state leaders. The purpose of the seminar was to spread the message of family planning and counteract propaganda against it. The President congratulated the Indian press for sponsoring the seminar and proclaimed the duty of the mass media to involve the people in the struggle against poverty. He noted that although agricultural production has doubled and life expectancy has increased 50%, the rising population has negated any national progress. The common people must be convinced that family planning is vital to eradicate poverty and unemployment. It is false propaganda that family planning is not permitted by Islam and that Muslims have not adapted family planning. Nowhere in the Koran, the Hadis, or Jima is there prohibition of family planning. The family planning program, as part of an integrated health service, must be accepted by the people through the creation of an atmosphere where the norm of small families is acceptable to a very large section of the population.