National Population Policy of India

The overriding objective of economic and social development is to improve the quality of lives that people lead, to enhance their well-being, and to provide them with opportunities and choices to become productive assets in society.
In 1952, India was the first country in the world to launch a national programme, emphasizing family planning to the extent necessary for reducing birth rates "to stabilize the population at a level consistent with the requirement of national economy"¹. After 1952, sharp declines in death rates were, however, not accompanied by a similar drop in birth rates. The National Health Policy, 1983 stated that replacement levels of total fertility rate² (TFR) should be achieved by the year 2000.
On 11 May, 2000 India is projected to have 1 billion³ (100 crore) people, i.e. 16 percent of the world's population on 2.4 percent of the globe's land area. If current trends continue, India may overtake China in 2045, to become the most populous country in the world. While global population has increased threefold during this century, from 2 billion to 6 billion, the population of India has increased nearly five times from 238 million (23 crores) to 1 billion in the same period. India's current annual increase in population of 15.5 million is large enough to neutralize efforts to conserve the resource endowment and environment.

Box 1: India's Demographic Achievement

Half a century after formulating the national family welfare programme, India has:

reduced crude birth rate (CBR) from 40.8 (1951) to 26.4 (1998, SRS);
halved the infant mortality rate (IMR) from 146 per 1000 live births (1951) to 72 per 1000 live births (1998, SRS);
quadrupled the couple protection rate (CPR) from 10.4 percent (1971) to 44 percent (1999);
reduced crude death rate (COR) from 25 (1951) to 9.0 (1998, SRS);
added 25 years to life expectancy from 37 years to 62 years;
achieved nearly universal awareness of the need for and methods of family planning, and
reduced total fertility rate from 6.0 (1951) to 3.3 (1997, SRS).

Table 1: Population Projections for India (million)³

March 1991	March 2001	March 2011	March 2016
846.3	1012.4	1178.9	1263.5

Stabilizing population is an essential requirement for promoting sustainable development with more equitable distribution. However, it is as much a function of making reproductive health care accessible and affordable for all, as of increasing the provision and outreach of primary and secondary education, extending basic amenities including sanitation, safe drinking water and housing, besides empowering women and enhancing their employment opportunities, and providing transport and communications.
The National Population Policy, 2000 (NPP 2000) affirms the commitment of government towards voluntary and informed choice and consent of citizens while availing of reproductive health care services, and continuation of the target free approach in administering family planning services. The NPP 2000 provides a policy framework for advancing goals and prioritizing strategies during the next decade, to meet the reproductive and child health needs of the people of India, and to achieve net replacement levels (TFR) by 2010. It is based upon the need to simultaneously address issues of child survival, maternal health, and contraception, while increasing outreach and coverage of a comprehensive package of reproductive and child heath services by government, industry and the voluntary non-government sector, working in partnership.

1 - Milestones in Evolution of the Population Policy are listed at Appendix II.

2 - TFR: Average number of children born to a woman during her lifetime.

3 - Source: Technical Group on Population Projections, Planning Commission.