Essay About India National Population Policy And Overriding Objective

India National Population Policy 2000
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National Population Policy 2000 – INTRODUCTION
1 The overriding objective of economic and social development is to improve the
quality of lives that people lead, to enhance their well-being, and to provide them
with opportunities and choices to become productive assets in society.
2 In 1952, India was the first country in the world to launch a national programme,
emphasizing family planning to the extent necessary for reducing birth rates “to
stabilize the population at a level consistent with the requirement of national
economy”1 . After 1952, sharp declines in death rates were, however, not
accompanied by a similar drop in birth rates. The National Health Policy, 1983
stated that replacement levels of total fertility rate2 (TFR) should be achieved by
the year 2000.
3 On 11 May, 2000 India is projected to have 1 billion3 (100 crore) people, i.e. 16
percent of the worlds population on 2.4 percent of the globes land area. If current
trends continue, India may overtake China in 2045, to become the most populous
country in the world. While global population has increased threefold during this
century, from 2 billion to 6 billion, the population of India has increased nearly five
times from 238 million (23 crores) to 1 billion in the same period. Indias current
annual increase in population of 15.5 million is large enough to neutralize efforts
to conserve the resource endowment and environment.
Box 1: Indias Demographic Achievement
Half a century after formulating the national family welfare programme, India has:
? reduced crude birth rate (CBR) from 40.8 (1951) to 26.4 (1998, SRS);
? halved the infant mortality rate (IMR) from 146 per 1000 live births (1951)
to 72 per 1000 live births (1998, SRS);
? quadrupled the couple protection rate (CPR) from 10.4 percent (1971) to
44 percent (1999);
? reduced crude death rate (CDR) from 25 (1951) to 9.0 (1998, SRS);
? added 25 years to life expectancy from 37 years to 62 years;
? achieved nearly universal awareness of the need for and methods of
family planning, and
? reduced total fertility rate from 6.0 (1951) to 3.3 (1997, SRS).
4 Indias population in 1991 and projections to 2016 are as follows:
Table 1: Population Projections for India (million)3
March 1991 March 2001 March 2011 March 2016
846.3 1012.4 1178.9 1263.5
1 Milestones in the Evolution of the Population Policy are listed at Appendix II, page 30
2 TFR: Average number of children born to a woman during her lifetime.
3 Source: Technical Group on Population Projections,Planning Commission.
5 Stabilising population is an essential requirement for promoting sustainable
development with more equitable distribution. However, it is as much a function of
making reproductive health care accessible and affordable for all, as of increasing
the provision and outreach of primary and secondary education, extending basic
amenities including sanitation, safe drinking water and housing, besides
empowering women and enhancing their employment opportunities, and providing
transport and communications.
6 The National Population Policy, 2000 (NPP 2000) affirms the commitment of
government towards voluntary and informed choice and consent of citizens while
availing of reproductive health care services, and continuation of the target free
approach in administering family planning services. The NPP 2000 provides a
policy framework for advancing goals and prioritizing strategies during the
decade, to meet the reproductive and child health needs of the people of India,
and to achieve net replacement levels (TFR) by 2010. It is based upon the need to
simultaneously address issues of child survival, maternal health, and
contraception, while increasing outreach and coverage of a comprehensive
package of reproductive and child heath services by government, industry and the
voluntary non-government sector, working in partnership.
OBJECTIVES
1 The immediate objective of the NPP 2000 is to address the unmet needs for
contraception, health care infrastructure, and health personnel, and to provide
integrated service delivery forbasic reproductive and child health care. The
medium-term objective is to bring the TFR to replacement levels by 2010, through
vigorous implementation of inter-sectoral operational strategies. The long-term
objective is to achieve a stable population by 2045, at a level consistent with the
requirements of sustainable economic growth, social development, and
environmental protection.
2 In pursuance of these objectives, the following National Socio-Demographic