The government is not considering any population control legislation, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
Responding to a question whether the government took notice of a statement by a Union Minister that a bill will be introduced for the purpose of population control, Pawar said the government was seeking to stabilize the population by 2045, in line with the National Population Policy 2000. and National Health Policy 2017.
The government’s efforts have succeeded in curbing population growth, she said in a written response.
Pawar said the total fertility rate (TFR) fell to 2.0 in 2019-21, according to the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS 5), – which is below replacement level – while fertility rates in 31 of 36 states and The same survey showed UTs had fallen to replacement level fertility.
Pawar further informed the house that the use of modern contraceptives has increased to 56.5% and the unmet need for family planning is only 9.4%, according to NFHS 5.
She said that according to the census sample registration system, the crude birth rate (CBR) fell to 19.7 per 1,000 people in 2019.
“Therefore, the government is not considering any legislative action,” Pawar said in his response.
Many right-wing groups and some BJP leaders, including Union Minister Giriraj Singh, have demanded a tough law to control India’s population growth.
A latest United Nations report said India is expected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country next year.
According to the UN, India’s total fertility rate (TFR) has fallen from 5.9 children per woman in 1950 to 2.2 children per woman in 2020, just below the 2.1 fertility rate of replacement.
Replacement level fertility is the TFR at which the population renews itself exactly from one generation to the next, without migration. Anything below this level practically leads to an increase in the elderly population, with fewer and fewer young people to support them.
The World Population Prospects 2022 from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, indicates that the world population is expected to reach eight billion on November 15, 2022.
The report says, “India is expected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country in 2023.
The two most populated regions in the world in 2022 were East and Southeast Asia, with 2.3 billion people, or 29% of the world’s population, and Central and South Asia, with 2.1 billion, or 26% of the total world population.
China and India had the largest populations in these regions, with more than 1.4 billion each in 2022.
(Only the title and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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