With the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) continuing at 2.8 per cent, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has pushed back the target date for achieving population stabilisation to 2070 from 2045, stipulated in the National Population Policy (NPP) 2000.
It is “extremely difficult” to achieve it by 2045. At the current rate of implementation, we expect population stabilisation to be achieved only in 2070, with a population of 170 crore,” Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told members of the National Commission on Population on Thursday. It is chaired by Prime Minster Manmohan Singh.
Drawing the commission's attention to the serious ramifications for the overall development of the country, Mr. Azad said the challenge was to make up for lost time, bring back family planning and population stabilisation into political discourse and speed up the response at all levels.
The NPP 2000 laid down meeting the unmet need for family planning and health care infrastructure as an immediate objective; its mid-term objective was to achieve a TFR of 2.1 per cent by 2010 and the long-term goal was to attain population stabilisation by 2045.
Mr. Azad said one of the key challenges was to effectively implement laws on prevention of child marriage, sex determination and foeticide, and domestic violence. Calling for strong political support to deal with these issues, he asked his Cabinet colleagues and Chief Ministers to provide leadership and utilise whatever resources they had to promote the welfare of girls. These were social issues that transcended his Ministry and necessitated every one's support.
While there was a declining trend in fertility rates in 14 States, northern and central parts of the country continued to have persistently high TFRs ranging from 3 to 3.9 per cent, Mr. Azad said.
It is estimated that nearly half the population growth will be from just seven States and 22 per cent from Uttar Pradesh alone. This is against the combined contribution of 13 per cent from the southern States of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Spelling out the plans to achieve population stabilisation, Mr. Azad said a special division would be set up in the Ministry at the Central and State levels. Similar administrative set-ups would be established at the district and block levels. Also, post-partum centres would come up for facilitating institutional deliveries. A proposal to substantially enhance compensation for women undergoing sterilisation from Rs. 600 and to make available contraceptives on the doorstep at the village level through Accredited Social Health Activists was being considered , Mr. Azad said.
