NITI Aayog soon to start roadmap for population stabilisation

Reporterstoday: The NITI Aayog is going to draft a road map for achieving population stabilisation in collaboration with the Population Foundation of India (PFI). It organised a national consultation titled “Realising the vision of population stabilisation: leaving no one behind”.

“The consultative meeting (with PFI)…will bring together senior officials, experts and specialists to discuss ways and means of strengthening population policy and family planning programmes,” said an official statement. Aayog hopes that it will be able to include recommendations from the meeting in the working paper on population stabilisation it will soon release.

“The recommendations from the consultation will contribute to a NITI Aayog working paper to help achieve India’s vision of attaining population stabilisation, as voiced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 August 2019,” it said.

Experts believe that the “population explosion” theory is contentious as despite its 1.37 billion people, India’s birth rates have been falling. Some also believe that if the government uses its people judiciously for the nation’s growth, the high population of India could also be an asset.

However, policy makers appear to be more worried about the fact that 30% of Indian citizens are young and fall in the reproductive age group. Because of this factor, the population continues to grow.

“Family planning is considered universally as the smartest development investment For India to realize its sustainable development goals and economic aspirations, it is important to ensure that people have informed access to contraception and quality family planning services,” the Aayog said, while adding that the budgetary allocation for the said goals may have to be increased.