Government think tank NITI Aayog will hold a national consultation on population stabilisation on Friday to explore ways to strengthen the country’s population policy and family planning programmes.
The event, being held in partnership with the Population Foundation of India, will include government officials from the Centre as well as seven States — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu — and experts on the subject.
Working paper
“The conference will contribute to a NITI Aayog working paper to help India in its vision for attaining population stabilisation as voiced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2019,” according to a press statement from NITI Aayog.
Speaking from the ramparts of Red Fort about population explosion in the country, Mr. Modi said keeping families small is “an act of patriotism.”
The officials will brainstorm over recommendations such as treating population stabilisation and family planning as a national priority and ensuring inter-governmental convergence and multisectoral participation, increasing budgetary allocations for family planning, enhancing the basket of contraceptive choices, addressing existing socio-cultural barriers towards contraception as well as social determinants of health such as age at marriage and sex-selective practices, the statement added.
Second largest
India, with a current population size of 1.37 billion, has the second largest population in the world. India is also at a stage where birth rates are falling but the population continues to grow due to the fact that more than 30% of the population is young and in the reproductive age group, including nearly 30 million currently married women in the age group of 15-49.
