Population Policy of India (With Statistics)

Population Policy of India: Introduction:

A positive population policy which aims at reducing the birth rate and ultimately stabilising
the growth rate of population. In India, where the majority of people are illiterate, fatalist, and
custom-ridden, and do not believe in family planning, only the government’s initiative can
help in controlling population growth.High growth rate of population has been one of the
major problems facing India. India with only 2.4 per cent of the global surface area sustains
102.7 crore population which is 16.7 per cent of the world population, as on March 1, 2001.
With the process of development since 1951, the death rate has declined below 8 per
thousand whereas the birth rate continues to be around 25 per thousand.Consequently, the
population growth rate remains at a very high level of about 2 per cent. The addition of 18.1
crore persons to India’s population between 1991-2001 was more than the population of
Brazil, the fifth most populous country of the world.

This frightening growth rate of population has aggravated the problems of poverty,
unemployment and inequalities. There has been a gross neglect of social sectors like primary
education, basic health and social security. India’s resources are fast depleting due to rising
demand. There has been degradation of environment. Government Policy to Control
Population Growth:The population policy of the Government of India has passed through the
following phases from time to time:
1. Pre-Independence Period:
Before independence, the Britishers did not consider population growth as a problem. Their
attitude towards birth control was one of indifference because they never wanted to interfere
with the values, beliefs, customs and traditions of Indians. That is why this phase is called the
Period of Indifference.However, the intelligensia in India was aware of the problem of
growing population and did advocate birth control. Among them P.K. Wattal was the pioneer
who wrote a book on Population Problem in India in 1916, followed by R.D. Karve,
Rabindranath Tagore, P.N. Sapru, Jawaharlal Nehru and Bhore Committee among others who
advocated birth control.Gandhiji also favoured birth control but emphasised natural methods
like self-control or abstinence and safe period instead of artificial methods of birth control.
Prof. Gunnar Myrdal wrote about this period thus: “During the last time of British
colonialism, the intelligensia prepared background thoughts related to birth control. The
logical and systematic policies of birth control were put in force after independence.”
2. The Period of Neutrality, 1947-51:
The period following independence and before the beginning of the planning era was one of
neutrality. The Government of India was busy with the post-independence problems like
rehabilitation of the people following the Partition, reorganisation of the States and Pakistan’s
invasion of Kashmir. However, at one of the meetings of the Planning Commission in 1949,
Jawaharlal Nehru laid emphasis on the need for family planning programme in India.
3. The Period of Experimentation, 1951-61:
During the first decade (1951-61) of planned economic development, family planning as a
method of population control was started as a government programme in India. The National
Family Planning Programme was launched in 1952 with the objective of “reducing birth rate
to the extent necessary to stabilise the population at a level consistent with the requirement of
the national economy.”This programme was started on an experimental basis with a Plan
outlay of Rs. 65 lakh in the First Plan and Rs. 5 crore in the Second Plan. It was based on
Clinical Approach to provide service to those who were motivated to visit family planning
centres set up by the Government.
4. The Beginning of the Population Control Policy 1961 to 2000:
With the rapid growth of population in the 1961 Census by 21.5 per cent, the Extension
Approach to family planning was adopted in the Third Plan. This approach emphasised the
adoption of an educational approach to family planning through Panchayat Samitis, Village
Development Committees and other groups so as to change the attitudes, behaviour and
knowledge of the people towards family planning.The family planning programme was also
made target oriented and Rs. 27 crore were allocated during the Plan for this purpose. The
target was to reduce the birth rate to 25 per 1000 persons by 1973. To make this programme
more popular, Cafeteria Approach was adopted.Under it, the couples were given advice on
different types of family planning methods to be adopted. The choice of a particular method
was left to them. For the effective working of the family planning programme, a separate
Department of Family Welfare was created in the Ministry of Health and Family Planning in
1966.High priority was accorded to the family planning programme during the Fourth Plan
by allocating Rs. 330 crore.The aim was to reduce the birth rate to 25 per 1000 persons by
1980-81. For this, efforts were to be directed towards:
(a) Social acceptability for a small family;
(b) Increasing information and knowledge about family planning methods both in urban and
rural areas; and
(c) Making available the various devices and equipment to the couples.
Another important measure was the integration of family planning services with health,
maternity and child health care and nutrition. Thus the family planning programme was made
more broad-based. To make this programme more effective, Selective Approach was adopted
under which couples in the reproductive age group of 25 to 35 years were persuaded to
undergo sterilisation.
The 1971 Census showed a rapid growth in population by 24.6 per cent. To control this, the
Fifth Plan laid down the ambitious target of reducing the birth rate to 30 per 1000 by the end
of the Plan (1978-79) and to 25 per 1000 by 1983-84.
For achieving this, it proposed to protect 33 per cent of couples against conception by 1978-
79 against 16-17 per cent at the end of the Fourth Plan. To implement it, monetary incentive
was given to couples undergoing sterilisation. This was followed by compulsory sterilisation
under The National Emergency in 1975.For the first time, National Population Policy was
announced in 1976 to mount “a direct assault on the problem of numbers. Its salient features
were:
(1) To raise the age of marriage for girls to 18 years and for boys to 21 years;
(2) To take special measures to raise the level of female education in all States;
(3) Raising the monetary incentive to persons undergoing sterilisation according to the
number of children in the family; and
(4) Additional incentives to government employees undergoing sterilisation, having upto two
children.
Targets of sterilisation were fixed in all the States. As a result, the number of sterilisations
rosefrom 9.4 lakh in 1973-74 to 82.6 lakh in 1976-77. But this was due to the adoption of
compulsory sterilisation by the majority of State governments. Taking advantage of the
emergency, many States resorted to unfair and coercive methods to sterilise people of all
ages. This led to mass resentment and unrest among the people. As a result, family planning
programme became very unpopular.In the post-emergency period, the Janata Government
announced a New Population Policy in 1977. The main features of this policy were:
(a) Renaming the family planning programme into family welfare programme;
(b) Fixing the marriage age for girls at 18 years and for boys at 21 years. This has been
implemented by the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act, 1978;
(c) Making sterilisation voluntary;
(d) Including population education as part of normal course of study;
(e) Monetary incentive to those who go in for sterilization and tubectomy;
(f) Private companies to be exempted in corporate taxes if they popularise birth control
measures among employees;
(g) Use of media for spreading family planning in rural areas, etc. this policy put an end
tocompulsory sterilisation and laid emphasis on voluntary sterilization. This slowed down the
family planning programme. As a result, the number of sterilizations fell from 82.6 lakh in
1976-77 to 9 lakh in 1977-78.
The Sixth Plan laid down the long-term demographic goal of reducing the net reproduction
rate (NRR) to 1 by 2000 by reducing crude birth rate to 21, crude death rate to 9, infant
mortality rate to less than 60 per 1000, and couple protection rate (CPR) to 60 per cent.The
goal of attaining NRR of 1 was revised to 2006-11 in the Seventh Plan by reducing crude
birth rate to 29, crude death rate to 10.4, infant mortality rate to 90 per 1000, and couple
protection rate to 42 per cent. Further, the Seventh Plan laid emphasis on the two-child family
norm. To make it successful, it intensified family planning and maternity and child health
programmes.
To achieve the goal of NRR of 1, the Eighth Plan extended it to the period 2011 -16. The
targets laid down during the Plan were crude birth rate at 26, infant mortality at 70 per 1000
and couple protection rate to 56 per cent.To achieve these, the Government replaced the
earlier Population Control Approach by the Reproductive and Child Health Approach in
October 1997 to stabilise population and improve quality of life. The focus of this approach
was on decentralised area specific macro-planning.It led to several new schemes for
improving quality and coverage of welfare services for women, children and adolescents such
as child survival, safe motherhood programme, and universal immunisation programme
(UIP), reproductive tract infections (RTI), etc.
During the Ninth Plan, the earlier approach of using NRR (Net Reproduction Rate) of 1.0
was changed to a Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 2.1. This level of TFR had been projected to
be achieved by 2026 in the Plan. Further, with increased RCH (Reproductive and Child
Health), the targets laid down by the end of the Ninth Plan (2002) had been infant mortality
rate of 50 per 1000, crude birth rate of 23, total fertility rate of 2.6 and CPR of 60 per cent.In
2001, the National Policy for Empowerment of Women was adopted with the ultimate
objective of ensuring women their rightful place in society by empowering them as agents of
socio-economic change and development. Women empowerment is, therefore, an important
approach adopted in the Tenth Five Year Plan for the development of women.
To this effect, a National Plan of Action for Empowerment of Women, with a view to
translating the National Policy of Empowerment of Women into action in a time bound
manner has been adopted as a priority agenda for action by the Department of Women and
Child Development (DWCD) of the Ministry of HRD. So the Government’s population
policy has shifted from population control to family welfare and to women empowerment.
Family Planning Expenditure
Up to the Fifth Plan, expenditure on family planning was very small. It was only from the
Sixth Plan that it had been increasing both in absolute terms and as percentage of total plan
outlay. In absolute terms, it increased from Rs. 1,448 crores during the Sixth Plan to Rs.
15,120 crore during the Ninth Plan. As the percentage of total plan outlay, it ranged between
1.3 to 1.4 per cent up to the Eighth Plan.It was only in the Ninth Plan that it had increased to
3.1 per cent. It has been stipulated at 3.0 per cent in the Tenth Plan. This shows that except
during the Ninth Plan, the Government did not provide adequate financial assistance to the
family welfare programme. It was in the Ninth Plan that the Government announced the
National Population Policy on 15 February, 2000 which is discussed here in detail.
National Population Policy, 2000:
India’s population reached 100 crore on May 11, 2000 and it is estimated that if current
trends of population increase continue she will become the most populous country in the
world by 2045 when it would overtake China. During the 20th century, India’s population
increased nearly five times from 23 crore to 100 crore, while during the same period world’s
population increased nearly three times from 200 crore to 600 crore.With 1.55 crore current
annual increase in population, it seems difficult to maintain a balance to conserve the
resource endowment and environment in the country. For promoting sustainable development
with more equitable distribution, there is an urgent need to stabilize population.To meet the
reproductive and child health needs of the people of India and to achieve TFR by 2010, the
provision of policy framework for advancing goals and priorities to various strategies is
available in the National Population Policy announced on 15 February, 2000. The basic aim
of this policy is to cover various issues of maternal health, child survival and contraception
and to make reproductive health care accessible and affordable for all.
Objectives:
There are three types of objectives of National Population Policy (NPP) 2000:
1. The Immediate Objective:The immediate objective is to address the unmet needs for
contraception, health care infrastructure and health personnel and to provide integrated
service delivery for basic reproductive and child health care.
2. The Medium Term Objective:The medium term objective is to bring the Total Fertility
Rate (TFR) to replacement level by 2010 through vigorous implementation in inter-sectorial
operational strategies.
3. The Long Term Objective: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 environment protection.
Targets:
The following are the targets of National Population Policy:
1. Achieve zero growth rate of population by 2045.
2. Reduce infant mortality rate of below 30 per thousand live births.
3. Reduce maternal mortality ratio of below 100 per 1, 00,000 live births.
4. Reduce birth rate to 21 per 1000 by 2010.
5. Reduce total fertility rate (TFR) to 2.1 by 2010.
National Socio-Demographic Goals for 2010:
To fulfill these objectives and targets. National Socio-Demographic goals have been
formulated which in each case are to be achieved by the year 2010.
They are as follows:
1. Make school education free and compulsory up to the age of 14 and reduce dropouts at
primary and secondary school levels to below 20 per cent for both boys and girls.
2. Address the unmet needs for basic reproductive and child health services, supplies and
infrastructure.
3. Achieve universal immunization of children against all vaccine preven-table diseases.
4. Promote delayed marriage for girls, not before 18 and preferably after the age of 20 years.
5. Prevent and control communicable diseases.
6. Achieve universal access to information/counselling and services for fertility regulation
and contraception with a wide basket of choices.
7. Achieve 80 per cent institutional deliveries and 100 per cent deliveries by trained persons.
8. Achieve 100 per cent registration of births, marriage and pregnancy.
9. Integrate Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM) in the provision of reproductive and child
health services and in reaching out to households.
10. Contain the spread of Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and promote
greater integration between the management of Reproductive Tract Infections (RTI) and
Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) and the National AIDS Control Organisation.
11. Bring about convergence in implementation of related social sector programmes so that
family welfare becomes a people centred programme.
12. Promote vigorously the small family norm to achieve replacement levels of TFR.
The Technical Group on Population Projection has projected India’s population of 116 crore
in 2010, but it may reduce to 110.70 crore in 2010 if the National Population Policy, 2000 is
fully implemented. This can be seen from Table 32.2.
Anticipated Population Growth (In Crire)
Moreover, the projections of crude birth rate, infant mortality rate and total fertility rate are
shown in Table 32.3. These projections are feasible if the National Population Policy 2000 is
fully implemented.The Projections of Crude Birth Rate, Infant Mortality Rate and Total
Fertility Rate if the NPP 2000 is Fully Implemented
Organisation:
To implement and achieve the various objectives, targets and socio--demographic goals, the
following organisational structure has been proposed by the National Population Policy:
1. The appointment of a National Commission on Population to be presided over by the
Prime Minister. The chief ministers of all States and related ministers will be its members.
2. There will be a State Commission on Population in every State headed by its chief
minister.
3. The new policy will be implemented by the Panchayats and municipalities at the grassroots
levels.
Motivational and Promotional Measures for Adoption of the Norms of Small Family:
The motivational and promotional measures for adoption of small family norms are:
1. Strict enforcement of Child Marriage Act, 1976.
2. Facilities for safe abortion to be expanded and strengthened.
3. Strict enforcement of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994.
4. Increased vocational training schemes for girls leading to self- employment to be
encouraged.
5. Panchayats and Zila Parishads to be rewarded and honoured for exemplary performance in
universalising the small family norm, achieving reductions in infant mortality and birth rates
and promoting literacy with completion of primary schooling.
6. A revolving fund to be set up for income-generating activities by village level self-help
groups who provide community level health care services.
7. The Balika Samridhi Yojna run by the Department of Women and Child Development to
promote survival and care of the girl child to be continued. A cash incentive of Rs. 500 is
awarded at the birth of the girl child up to two children.
8. A Family Welfare-Linked Health Insurance Plan to be introduced. Couples below the
poverty line who undergo sterilisation with not more than two living children would become
eligible (along with children) for health insurance (for hospitalisation) not exceeding Rs.
5,000 and a personal accident insurance cover for the spouse undergoing sterilisation.
9. Maternity Benefits Scheme run by the Department of Rural Development to continue. A
cash incentive of Rs. 500 is awarded to mothers who have their first child after 19 years of
age, for birth of the first or second child only. Disbursement of cash award will in future be
linked to compliance with ante-natal check up, institutional delivery by trained birth
attendant, registration of birth and BCG immunisation.
10. Couples below the poverty line who marry after the legal age of marriage, register the
marriage, have their first child after the mother reaches the age of 21, accept the small family
norm and adopt a terminal method after the birth of the second child to be rewarded.
11.A wider affordable choice of contraceptives to be made accessible at diverse delivery
points with counselling services to enable acceptors to exercise voluntary and informed
consent.
12. Products and services to be made affordable through innovative social marketing
schemes.
13. Creches and child care centres to be set up for income generating activities by village
level self-help groups who provide community level health care services.
14. Local entrepreneurs at village levels to be provided soft loans and to be encouraged to run
ambulance to supplement the existing arrangements for referred transportation.
15. The 42nd Constitutional Amendment has frozen the number of representatives in the Lok
Sabha (on the basis of population) at 1971 Census levels. The freeze is currently valid until
2001, and has served as an incentive for State Governments to fearlessly pursue the agenda
for population stabilisation. This freeze needs to be extended until 2026.
Implementation of NPP, 2000: National Commission on Population:
In pursuance of NPP, 2000, the Central Government has set up a National Commission on
Population (NCP) on 11 May, 2000. It is presided over by the Prime Minister, with the Chief
Ministers of all States and UTs and the Central Minister-in-charge of concerned Central
Ministries and Departments, reputed demographers, public health professionals and non-
government organisations as members. State Level Commissions on Population presided over
by the Chief Minister have been set up with the objective of ensuring implementation of the
NPP.
The functions of the Commission are:
(i) To review, monitor and give direction for the implementation of the NPP with a view to
achieve the goals set by it;
(ii) To promote synergy between health, educational, environmental and developmental
programmes so as to hasten population stabilization;
(iii) To promote inter-sectoral co-ordination in planning and implementation of the
programmes through different agencies at the Centre and in the States; and
(iv) To develop a vigorous people’s programme to support this national effort.
The first meeting of NCP was held on 22 July, 2000, where the Prime Minister announced
two major steps:
1. The formation of an Empowered Action Group within the Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare to focus on those States which are deficient in national socio-demographic indices.
2. Establishment of National Population Stabilisation Fund (NPSF) with a seed money of Rs.
100 crore to provide a window for channelising funds from national voluntary sources. The
Prime Minister appealed to the corporate sector, industry, trade organisations and individuals
to generously contribute to this fund and thus help in the national effort to stabilise
population. A Strategic Support Group consisting of secretaries of concerned sectoral
ministries has been constituted as a Standing Advisory Group to the Commission. Nine
working groups have been constituted to look into specific aspects of implementation of the
programmes aimed at achieving the targets set in NPP NCP has allocated funds for action
plans drawn up by district magistrates in poorly performing districts to implement
programmes to accelerate the decline in fertility.
Evaluation:
This is a broad-based policy which relies more on persuasive and positive measures rather
than on coercive methods. It demonstrates the Government’s concern for the rapid growth of
population and its stabilisation from the long--term perspective. At the same time, it lays
emphasis on both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of population.However, this policy
has been criticised on the following grounds:
1. The Swaminathan Committee (1993) had recommended the year 2015 as the target for
population stabilisation which the NPP has pushed to the year 2045.
2. The Swaminathan Committee was against providing cash incentives to couples undergoing
sterilisation because these are misused. But the NPP has proposed the same.
3. Critics point out that the NPP is soft towards the male participants. The various
motivational and promotional measures for adoption of small family norms appear to convey
that the women will bear the burden of population control rather than men. This is borne out
by the fact that there has been a steady decline in vasectomies over the last two decades and
presently over 97 per cent of sterilizations are tubectomies of women.
4. The NPP commits the same mistake which had been made by the earlier population
policies. It depends upon its implementation on the bureaucracy rather than on NGOs (non-
governmental organisations).
5. The proposal that the National Commission on Population (NCP) should be chaired by the
Prime Minister has been criticised because being a very busy person, the Prime Minister
would not be able to attend it. This would delay the taking of important decisions on
population control.
Progress in the Milestones of the Population Policy of India:
1. Bhor Committee Report in 1946.
2. Implementation of Family Planning Programme in 1952.
3. National Population Policy Statement in 1976.
4. Policy Statement of Family Welfare Programme in 1977.
The National Population Policy Statement of 1976 and Policy Statement on Family Welfare
Programme of 1977 were laid on the Table of the House of Parliament. But they have never
been discussed or adopted by the Parliament.
5. National Health Policy was adopted in 1983, which emphasized the need for “securing the
small family norm through efforts and moving towards the goal of population stabilization.”
At the time of adoption of National Health Policy, the need for a separate National Population
Policy had been emphasized by the Parliament.
6. A Committee on Population under the Chairmanship of Shri Karunakaran was appointed
by the National Development Council in 1991. To take “a long term holistic view of
development, population growth and environmental protection” and to “suggest policies and
guidelines for formulation of programmes” and “a monitoring mechanism with short,
medium and long term perspectives and goals.” The Karunakaran Report had been endorsed
by National Development Council in 1993.
7. A group was asked to prepare a draft of a National Population Policy in 1993 which was
headed by Dr. M.S. Swaminathan. This was supposed to be discussed by the Cabinet and
then by the Parliament. This report was circulated among the Members of Parliament in 1994
and the comments thereof had been invited from Central and State agencies.
It was expected that Parliament would help to produce a broad political consensus for
National Population Policy which was approved by the National Development Council. But
no action was taken to implement it.
8. The then Prime Minister I.K. Gujral promised to announce a National Population Policy in
1997 at the time of the 50th anniversary of India’s Independence. The Cabinet approved the
National Population Policy Draft during November 1997 with the recommendation to place
the same before the Parliament. But due to the dissolution of the Lok Sabha, this draft could
not be placed before the Parliament.
9. Another Draft of National Population Policy was finalised after one more round of
consultations during 1998 which was placed before the Cabinet in March 1999. To examine
the draft policy, the Cabinet appointed a group of Ministers headed by the Deputy Chairman
of Planning Commission. After several meetings, the group of Ministers invited a cross-
section of experts from public health, professionals, demographers, academia, social
scientists and women representatives.
The final draft of population policy prepared by the group of Ministers was placed before the
Cabinet which was discussed on 19th November, 1999. On the basis of the suggestions made
in the Cabinet meeting a fresh draft was prepared, placed before the Cabinet and approved as
National Population Policy, 2000.