Speech of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at inaugural meeting of National Commission on Population

New Delhi
July 22, 2000

My colleagues, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Shri K.C. Pant, Minister of Health, Dr. C.P. Thakur, Chief Ministers, Members of the National Commission on Population,

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am happy to be with you at the first meeting of the National Commission on Population. Many of you have taken time off from your busy schedules to be here. This reflects emerging universal concern over the problem of runaway population growth.

The solution to this problem lies in stabilising our population at a sustainable level. Achieving this stabilisation is a challenge. But once we overcome the challenge, we can truly develop our national human resource into a formidable force that will propel India towards all-round prosperity.

It is expected of the state to look after the basic minimum needs of its people. But, as I had pointed out the day we crossed the one billion mark, it is virtually impossible for any state to meet the legitimate requirements of its people if its population continues to gallop from one high to another. As a result, with the best of intentions, the state fails in its primary task: Ensuring a better quality of life for the largest possible number of its people.

It is, therefore, the state’s responsibility to prevent its population from exploding to unmanageable limits.

This was realised by India much before any other developing country faced with a similar problem. Indeed, we were the first country to formulate and adopt a National Family Planning Programme way back in 1952. The objective of that programme was to "reduce birth rate to the extent necessary to stabilise the population at a level consistent with requirement of national economy".

Nobody can fault the intention behind that programme; indeed, it was a courageous step forward, given the cultural, social and traditional realities of Indian society five decades ago.

But, a reality-check on how effective that programme and various policies framed subsequently have been in preventing a runaway population growth, reveals rather disturbing facts. Today, India is the second most populous country in the world. With only 2.5 per cent of global land, it is home to nearly 17 per cent of the world’s population.

Every year, more than 15 million children are born here to an unsure future. For, India is among those countries that have a high child mortality rate. As many as 100 of every 1,000 of our children aged under five and more than 200 of every 1,000 of our children aged under 15, risk dying a premature death.

No less disturbing are the facts that more than half our children aged under four are undernourished; 30 per cent of our newborns are underweight; 60 per cent of our women are anaemic. Forty per cent of the world’s malnourished children are to be found in our country.

It is indeed paradoxical that this dark reality is in sharp contrast to the progress made by us in food production, disease control and overall socio-economic development. These harsh realities persist in spite of numerous population-related programmes and despite huge sums of money being spent by Government.

Obviously there were flaws in these programmes as well as lapses in their implementation.

If I were to list the reasons why despite elaborate family welfare programmes and huge spending, India's population has shot up to one billion from 240 million in the last hundred years, they would broadly be:

• Lack of universal access to basic health care facilities;
• High child mortality rate;
• Low literacy rates, especially among women;
• Persistence of high levels of rural and urban poverty;
• Inadequate awareness of options and unmet needs for contraception services;
• And, of course lack of political as well as popular will to squarely face the problem and overcome the challenge.

Indeed, the success stories of countries like China, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia show that given the political will, backed by adequate popular response, the apparently impossible task of checking population growth can be achieved.

However, one need not necessarily look for examples outside India.

At home we have the examples of Kerala, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Each of them has shown exemplary performance in containing the growth of their respective population. The fertility and mortality rates of Kerala and Goa are nearly similar to those of developed countries. These States are reaping the benefits of investing in literacy, especially women's education, health care services and awareness campaigns.

At the other end of the spectrum are Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. These States have very high mortality as well as fertility rates. They also lag behind in providing adequate access to health care services, investing in education and empowering women -- factors that ultimately play a decisive role in determining family size.

Ironically, there are pockets within these States where investing in health and education, involving voluntary associations and encouraging community participation have yielded good dividends. I would urge these State Governments to take a cue from the success stories of States within the country as well as areas within their own territories.

The Central Government, on its part, is determined to ensure that flaws in programmes are removed and lapses in implementation do not recur. As a first step, the Ninth Plan recognises the need for a strategy to achieve rapid population stablisation by:

• Reducing infant and maternal mortality;
• Meeting felt needs for contraception.

The Ninth Plan also aims at investing more in the social sector and in synergising health, literacy and women's empowerment programmes. To ensure that these objectives are fulfilled, and to focus attention on the problem of runaway population growth, we took two subsequent decisions.

The first was the adoption of the National Population Policy 2000 that provides the policy framework for improving the quality and coverage, as well as for monitoring the delivery, of family welfare programmes. The policy focuses both on society as a whole as well as the primary building block of society, the family -- it targets overall population stabilisation; it aims at encouraging families to achieve sustainable reproductive goals.

Simultaneously, the policy promotes synergy among various social welfare and economic development programmes. It rests on the wisdom that population stabilisation is the key to sustainable development which is the key to improvement in the quality of life of the masses.

Our second move was to set up the National Commission on Population. This is a broad-based body that includes representatives of both Government and non-government organisations, as well as individuals who can influence society.

Your mandate is to:

• Review, monitor and give directions for the implementation of the National Population Policy so that the goals that we have set for ourselves can be achieved;
• Promote synergy between health, education and related development programmes so that population stabilisation can be achieved by the year 2045;
• Encourage inter-sectoral coordination in both planning and implementing programmes with the help of different sectors and agencies of both the Union and the State Governments; and,
• Build up a people's movement in support of this national effort.

The goals set by the National Population Policy are no doubt difficult, but by no means impossible, to achieve. I am confident that with the help of the National Commission on Population, and through you the people of India, Government will be able to achieve:

• Universal access to quality family planning services so that the two-child norm becomes a reality;
• Total coverage of registration of births, deaths and marriages;
• Full access to information on birth limitation methods and freedom of choice, especially to women, for planning their families;
• Reduction of Infant Mortality Rate to below 30 per thousand live births, incidence of low birth weight and maternal mortality rate;
• Immunisation against preventable diseases;
• Elimination of incidence of girls being married below the age of 18;
• Increase in the percentage of deliveries conducted by trained persons to 100 per cent;
• Contain Sexually Transmitted Diseases, especially AIDS;
• Universalisation of primary education and reduction in the dropout rates at primary and secondary levels to below 20 per cent both for boys and girls.

To facilitate the attainment of these goals by the National Commission on Population, my Government proposes to set up an Empowered Action Group and a National Population Stabilisation Fund.

The Empowered Action Group, attached to the Ministry of Health, will be charged with the responsibility of preparing area-specific programmes, with special emphasis on States that have been lagging behind in containing population growth to manageable limits and will account for nearly half the country's population in the next two decades.

The Group will also concentrate on involving voluntary associations, community organisations and Panchayati Raj Institutions in this national effort. It will explore the possibility of expanding the scope of 'social marketing' of contraceptives in a manner that makes them easily accessible even while raising awareness levels.

The National Population Stabilisation Fund, which will provide a window for canalising monies from national voluntary sources, is being set up to specifically aid projects designed to contribute to population stabilisation. I appeal to the corporate sector, industry, trade organisations and individuals to generously contribute to this fund, and thus contribute to this national effort.

To give it a kick-start, the Planning Commission may consider making a seed contribution from resources available with it. We will associate non-government representatives in the management of the National Population Stabilisation Fund.

Friends, I look forward to the National Commission on Population playing an active role, not only by generating ideas but also helping in their implementation in the coming years.

I began by saying that India's runaway population growth is a challenge that stares the nation in the face. I would like to conclude by saying that together we can overcome this challenge.