NGOs Key in Achieving Population Stabilisation Goals: Health Minister JP Nadda

Stressing on the importance of development partners and NGOs in assisting government to achieve population stabilisation goals, Health Minister JP Nadda today called for development of a 'protocol' or standardisation of vulnerable population during emergencies.

"Development partners and NGOs have a very important role to play. We cannot achieve the goal alone no matter how good our mechanisms are. Their experiences and interventions are required to make it reach the masses," the Minister said while inaugurating a national workshop on 'Vulnerable Population in Emergencies' on National Population Day.

The Minister said that out of 36 states and Union territories, 24 states have reached population stabilisation.

"We have to improve total fertility rate and strategise on left out states. We will try to take it as a mission mode to identify which are the states where stabilisation has not taken place and special effort needs to be done," he said.

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The Minister said that the population growth has shown a decline in the past decade.

"We experienced least population growth in 2001-11. We started our population programme in 1952 and the positive results have started showing up. It will become even better in the coming years," he said.

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He said that though India is the second largest populated nation of the world, it has its own strengths and weaknesses.

"We are a large force of 1.21 billion people in a democratic setup. We cannot compare ourselves to just any nation as the freedom of people here is immense. We have various positive aspects and younger population is the most important," he said.

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The one-day workshop will focus on topics including reproduction rights, needs of women, past and future perceptions of family planning, role of social media in advocacy programmes and the ways to stabilise population.

Minister of State Shripad Yesso Naik said that a pre-emergency planning with the help of NGOs and partners will come as a solution as India is vulnerable to natural calamities and emergencies which have significant impact on public health.

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"In emergency situation there is often lack of access to reproductive health services and in such situations, women suffer the most. A multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach involving the government, NGOs and development partners is the solution," Mr Naik said.

2001-11 was the first decade which has added less population compared to previous decades. As much as 18.14 crore was added from 2001-11 in comparison to 18.21 crore from 1991 to 2001.

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Although the total fertility rate in India has seen a decline and stands at 2.3 per woman in 2013, the decline is not consistent as states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan still have a high rate of around three.