On World Population Day on Thursday, health minister J P Nadda and minister of state for health Anupriya Patel said targeted steps would be taken in states with high Total Fertility Rate (TFR), or children per woman.”The goal of Viksit Bharat (developed India) can only be achieved when the health of India’s families is maintained which can be achieved by smaller families,” Nadda said.
Patel said more than 65% of India’s population was in the reproductive age group which made it pertinent to ensure that they were provided with choices and not burdened with unplanned family growth. Highlighting the expansion of the family planning programme, she said, “While earlier it used to be a two-phased programme, it has now been expanded to three phases: preparatory phase, community participation and service delivery.”
Patel said seven decades of family programme activities had shown results where 31 of 36 states/UTs had reached replacement level of TFR. She encouraged Uttar Pradesh , Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya and Manipur to take up concerted activities to bring down TFR.
“It is also encouraging to note that acceptance of modern contraceptives in the country has increased to over 56%,” she said.
In 1950, India had a TFR of 6.18 which reduced to 4.6 in 1980. In 2021, TFR reduced further to 1.91 which is below the replacement level needed to maintain a stable population size. Recently, a study claimed that by 2050, India’s TFR will reduce to 1.29.
Poonam Mutreja, executive director of Population Foundation of India, said as countries develop economically, the cost of raising children increases, leading families to have fewer children.
