NITI Aayog to draft roadmap for achieving population stabilisation

The NITI Aayog is going to draft a roadmap for achieving population stabilisation in collaboration with the Population Foundation of India (PFI). The premier policy think tank of the Government of India is organising a national consultation titled "Realising the vision of population stabilisation: leaving no one behind" on 20 December, 2019 at NITI Bhavan, New Delhi.

According to a statement released by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the consultative meeting is organised in partnership with Population Foundation of India (PFI), which will be attended by senior officials, specialists and experts on the subject.

"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.

The working paper is expected to address key gaps in India's family planning programmes. India, with a current population size of 1.37 billion, has the second largest population in the world. It will also offer constructive recommendations to address regional disparities in outcomes by focusing on adolescents and youths, inter-departmental convergence, demand generation, access to contraceptive services and quality of care.

Some of the key recommendations expected to emerge from the meeting are:

• Increasing the basket of contraceptive choices, with greater focus on spacing methods and helping women make informed choices about delaying pregnancy and spacing between children.
• Addressing social determinants of health such as age at marriage and sex-selective practices.
• Strengthening quality of care, including counselling services, managing side effects and family planning support.
• Increasing budgetary allocations for family planning, to align with the unmet needs of India's young people who constitute nearly 30 per cent of our population.
• Addressing existing socio-cultural barriers towards contraception by investing extensively in innovative behaviour-change communication strategies.
• Treating population stabilisation and family planning as a national priority, fostering inter-departmental convergence and ensuring multi-sectoral participation and integration.

Edited by Chitranjan Kumar