The Indian government has told the country’s parliament that authorities have been successful in “reining in the growth of population”, as it highlighted the declining fertility rate and a drop in birth rate in the country in recent years.
“The Government accords top priority to the National Family Planning Program, which is guided by the tenets of the National Population Policy, 2000, and National Health Policy, 2017, to address the unmet need for family planning,” SP Singh Baghel, India’s Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, informed the parliament.
He said that the fertility rate has declined from 2.2 in 2015-16 to 2.0 in 2019-21, citing data from the federal National Family Health Survey (NFHS) for these years.
Baghel noted that the current fertility rate was “below the replacement level”. According to the United Nations (UN) methodology, a fertility rate of 2.1 is classified as replacement-level fertility, which if sustained over a period of time would result in each generation replacing itself.
The minister said that the birth rate has also declined from 20.8 per thousand women in 2015 to 19.5 per thousand women in 2020.
He also noted that the “contraceptive usage” has risen from 47.8 percent in 2015-16 to 56.5 percent in 2019-21.
In gross population terms, India overtook China as the world’s most populous country in April this year, according to the United Nations.
The UN estimated that India’s population stood at 1.4 billion in April and it was “virtually certain” that the Indian population would continue to grow over the next few decades.
“Projections indicate that the size of the Chinese population will continue to fall and could drop below 1 billion before the end of the century,” the UN said.
Measures Taken by India to Check its Population
Baghel told the Parliament that the government has taken measures such as increasing the choices of contraceptives, introducing family planning schemes and financial incentives for voluntary sterilization.
He underlined that a federal scheme, ‘Mission Parivar Vikas’, has been implemented in 13 states to increase “access to contraceptives and family planning services”.
Baghel also said that the government had been running awareness campaigns such as ‘World Population Day & Fortnight’ and ‘Vasectomy Fortnight’ in order to stress on the importance of having smaller families.