National Population Policy 2000

Question 1: Why National Population Policy is mandatory for a country like India?

Answer:          

As early as the 1920’s Indian officials pointed out that population growth would threaten the nation’s economic development as well as the public health system. In the year 2000, India’s population is estimated to be 1 billion i.e. 100 crore people in the next decade. It accounts for 16 percent of the world’s population with 2.4 percent of the world’s land area and 4 percent of its water resources. According to the UN Report on Economic and Social Affairs, India’s population will reach 1.5 billion by 2030 and 1.64 billion by 2050, making India the largest populous nation by overtaking China.

Question 2: What are the practices made by the Government of India to control the population of India?

Answer:

• The male and female sterilization technique and the copper-T (T-Cu) insertion technique were adopted in 1965.
• The National Family Planning Program (NFPP) promoted natural family planning i.e. the rhythm method in the early stages of National Population Policy (NPP) implementation. It later recommended making birth control available in PHCs and CHCs.
• National Population Stabilisation Fund launched a strategy that increased girl marriage and delayed first childbirth to second childbirth.
• Jansankhya Sthirata Kosh (JSK) invites private sector gynecologists and vasectomy surgeons to conduct sterilization operations through the PPP model.

Question 3: What are the targets set by NPP-2000 to be achieved by 2010?

Answer: 

• High Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) plans to reduce MMR to less than 100 per one lakh births.
• The NPP 2000 aims to reduce the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) to less than 30 per 1000 live births,
• The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) was targeted to reduce the TFR to 2.1 by 2010.
• NPP-2000 has 80 percent institutional deliveries and 100 percent deliveries by trained personnel and aims to achieve 100 percent registration of births, deaths, marriages, and pregnancies.

India’s population is estimated to be 1 billion i.e. 100 crore people in the next decade. It accounts for 16 percent of the world’s population with 2.4 percent of the world’s land area and 4 percent of its water resources. According to the UN Report on Economic and Social Affairs, India’s population will reach 1.5 billion by 2030 and 1.64 billion by 2050, making India the largest populous nation by overtaking China. 

The Government of India felt that India needed a population policy to control the birth rate. In subsequent years the government appointed an expert committee under the chairmanship of M.S Swaminathan to frame the National Population Policy. The committee formulated a new population policy in 1994, reviewed by the Department of Family Welfare in 1999, and approved by Parliament in 2000. The monitoring and implementation of the NPP 2000 were done by the National Family Planning Program of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.