Micro-planning needed for stabilisation of population in India: Health Minister Nadda

New Delhi: Micro-planning of more than 100 districts needs to be conducted to reach the targeted Total Fertility Rate (TFR) and achieve the goal of population stabilisation, Health Minister JP Nadda said on Monday.

“The TFR in 23 districts of the country is above four per cent — 11 from UP, 8 from Bihar and 2 each from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. We have to put a special focus on these districts. There are 123 districts ranging in seven states where the TFR is between 3-3.9 percent.

“So these 123 plus 23 districts need to be strategised and focussed on. I would suggest we should go for micro-planning of every district and find out the reasons. If we find out the reasons, we will be able to address it. We cannot generalise,” he told a national workshop on “Jimmedari Nibhao, Plan Banao” on World Population Day.

TFR is the average number of children expected to be born per woman during her entire span of reproductive period and India has a TFR target of 2.1 percent.

Nadda said that the reasons may vary in each district and these could be due to poor infrastructure, social or cultural reasons and education.

“Every district has its own peculiarity. So a micro-planning is needed. In the next 2-3 months, if we are able to strategise this and we start addressing that way, next year when we meet on population day, we will have an answer,” he said.

Noting that there has been a reduction in the participation of males in family planning, he said that the reasons for this should be analysed and the focus area of the strategy should be on how to bring males into the fold of family planning.

Terming as a challenge the target of bringing down the TFR to 2.1 percent, the minister said that as far as Infant Mortality Rate, Maternal Mortality Rate and Under 5 Mortality are concerned, the pace of decline in India is faster than the world average.

“One good thing is we can say that we are going in the right direction. We have to increase the pace. 24 states have reached 2.3 percent. We have to strategise for states which have not brought it down,” he said.

Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel said there is thought process in the country that a family should have a male child and this was a “grassroot issue plaguing it”.

She stressed the need to bring about a change in this mindset.

MoS Health Faggan Singh Kulaste said that the way the population is rising in India, it will surpass that of China as he called for appropriate measures for population stabilisation.