~I welcome you all to this important meeting to discuss the implementation of the Population Stabilisation and Family Welfare Programmes in your respective States.

You will recall that a few weeks ago, the National Development Council met to endorse the Tenth Five Year Plan. The Plan directs us to achieve an 8 % annual average GDP growth rate and thus double the per capita income of our people in ten years. This is necessary to drastically reduce poverty, create adequate employment opportunities, improve the overall quality of life for all our citizens, and remove socio-regional imbalances in development.

The Plan document also makes it clear that stabilization of population is a pre-condition for attaining targeted levels of socio-economic development. Among the Tenth Plan’s 13 mandated objectives, as many as four relate to population issues. These are: (a) reducing the percentage of the decadal population growth from 21.3 in 1999-2000 to 16.2 by 2012; (b) reducing infant mortality from 72 to 28 per 1000 live births; (c) reducing maternal mortality from the current level of 4 to 1 per 1000; and (d) increasing literacy to 80%.

We have taken many important steps in the past few years that reflect the Central Government’s firm commitment to population stabilization. The National Population Commission has been constituted under my chairmanship. I have also agreed to chair the National Population Stabilization Fund for mobilizing non-governmental resources to support the many initiatives required for achieving our objectives. The Union Cabinet has approved the National Population Policy laying down several important targets and goals to be achieved within a time-bound manner.

However, in the areas of population stabilization, healthcare, and girls’ education, what has been worrying me is the big gap between the progress made in other States and the unsatisfactory performance of the four northern States of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The high growth of population in these four States is continuing to far outstrip rate of economic growth. And since these four States alone account for 37% of India’s population, their laggardly performance is pulling down the socio-economic development of the country as a whole. I, therefore, urge the political leadership, bureaucracy, NGOs, religious and social organizations, and all the people in what is termed as the Hindi heartland to take the issue of population to their heart and address it with dedication and commitment.

After seeing the presentation by the Secretary Family Welfare and reviewing the evidence before us, it is clear that what is needed is a strong and sustained political direction, backed by an equally determined and effective implementation on the ground by the administration in your States.

We have traveled a long distance since the time population was first identified as a national issue three decades ago. Today, unlike in the 1970s, our people -- including those in rural areas -- do not need to be convinced about the virtues of a small-family norm. They are already convinced. What they want are necessary support services in healthcare, education and family welfare, which are easily accessible at the local level. Sadly, these services are grossly inadequate, in numbers as well as in quality, in the four northern States. There is a huge unmet need for contraceptive services, in particular. Surveys show that in States like UP and Bihar, 25% of the couples do not want more children, but they are not using contraceptives for want of access.

There is a crucial link between population stabilization and improving the delivery of health services. The Centre provides significant resources for the provision of these resources, and we are ready to provide more, wherever needed in these four States. However, I am distressed by the fact that funds already provided by the Centre are not only not being fully and properly utilized but, in several instances, diverted for other purposes.

In some States, there is a very high and frequent turnover of officers responsible for implementation of family welfare, health care, and primary and girls’ education programmes. A large number of posts of doctors, ANMs and other technical staff are lying vacant and no efforts have been made to fill them up. It saddens me to note that funds released even for the payment of salaries to auxiliary nurse midwifes (ANMs), who are the most important field functionaries in the population stabilization and family welfare programme in rural areas, are not paid to them for several months at a time. In several areas, the public health systems are simply not functioning, and no responsibility is fixed on the officials for poor performance.

This neglect of governance is getting reflected in the number of infants who die within a week of their birth or the women who die in childbirth in many parts of these four States. There is a close correlation between high infant mortality rates and parents wanting to have more children. It is not surprising that the Total Fertility Rate in your States is nearly double the targeted goal of 2.1, as laid down in the National Population Policy.

I would like to draw your attention to two more disturbing trends. One is the resurgence of polio, which we were to have eradicated by 2000. I would like Uttar Pradesh, in particular, to pay serious attention to effective implementation of the polio vaccine programme, since most of the remaining cases of polio are found in UP.

The second worrying phenomenon is the falling female-to-male ratio in our population. There are reports of as many as 1.4 million ~missing girls~ in the last ten years because of the widespread practice of female foeticide and infanticide. This is a blot on our society and an alarm signal for future social problems. No doubt, this is rampant in many other parts of our country, including those that are economically more advanced. Parliament has recently passed an amendment to the relevant legislation, strengthening punitive provisions against the offenders. However, what is urgently needed is strong social awakening, leading to effective social action against such evil practices.

Before I conclude, I would like to present the following Action Points to you.

1:Chief Ministers of these four States should comprehensively review their population policies to ensure that population stabilization targets are achieved by 2010 as per the National Population Policy.

2:They should review the progress of implementation of health, family welfare and girls’ education programmes every month with the concerned ministers and officials. They should monitor the actual number of eligible couples in their State accessed through field level workers with various methods of contraception. They should also monitor the progress of expenditure incurred by field level functionaries out of funds sanctioned by the Centre and the State Government. Copies of these monthly Action Taken Reports should be sent to the PMO and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare regularly.

3:I shall hold regular meetings to review the progress of work in these four States with the Chief Ministers.

4:All the vacant posts of important healthcare functionaries like ANMs, medical officers, etc. should be filled up on a priority basis. Adequate training should be given to all these functionaries immediately after their recruitment. Similarly, there should be visible improvement in the quality of health services. Towards this end, all the infrastructure gaps should be removed in a time-bound manner.

5:We should make population stabilisation, health and family welfare a People’s Movement with the widest possible participation of all the institutions of civil society, especially voluntary organizations, social reform organisations and cooperative bodies in these four States. I would especially urge you to make all your programmes gender sensitive and make women’s empowerment central to your strategy. Patriarchal attitudes, dowry system, and violence against women have to be dealt with firmly. Unless we work towards bringing about a positive change in attitudes and social behavior, achievement of our cherished developmental goals will continue to elude us.

6:We will have to mobilize all the available media outlets, both governmental and privately owned, to launch an effective and sustained communication campaign to create mass awareness about issues of population, health and family welfare, and gender justice.

Thank you.~