Yogi Adityanath releases Uttar Pradesh's New Population Policy for 2021-2030

On the occasion of World Population Day, Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of India’s most populous state, unveiled the state’s new population control policy for 2021-2030.

• Speaking at the event, Adityanath said that the increasing population can be a hurdle in the path of development. “Rising population is impacting the growth trajectory. I am happy to release the new Population Policy 2021-2030. Population control is directly related to awareness among the people. Population growth and poverty are directly related,” News18 quoted the chief minister as saying.
• The policy is also related to the well-being of all citizens and to take the road of prosperity to their door, he said.
• Emphasising the importance of the participation of all sections of society, he said the first step is increasing awareness, especially by identifying sections of the population and carrying out awareness programmes among them.

Improvement needed on indicators

• “In 2016, the total fertility rate (TFR) was 3.3, and at the national level it was 2.6. Today it is 2.7 in UP and 2.3 at the national level. This means that we need to take additional efforts,” he said.
• Likewise, the maternal mortality rate (MMR) in 2016 in Uttar Pradesh was 258 and today it has come down to 197. But at the national level it was 178 in 2016 and today it is 113, he said highlighting that the state needs to take better efforts in this direction.
• The (infant mortality rate) IMR in Uttar Pradesh in 2016 was at 53 and today it is 45, at the national level it was 42 and today it is 35. These parameters tell us that we need to pay attention to quality," Adityanath said.

Importance of gap between two children 

• “If there is no gap between two children it is obvious that their nutrition will get affected. It will be very difficult to control the MMR and IMR and the goals of reducing the rates for UP below the national average. We can achieve the SDGs by taking more efforts in this direction,” he said.
• However, he cautioned that we must be careful that there is no adverse effect and imbalance in population. All sections of society will have to join in, every section will have to join the awareness campaign. It will also have to be connected to the health of mother and child, Adityanath said.
• “Every community has been taken care of in Population Policy 2021-2030,” Hindustan Times quotes Adityanath as saying.
• The chief minister also stressed on inter-department co-operation needed for better results
• According to the Hindustan Times report, state health minister Jai Pratap Singh said that Uttar Pradesh is aiming to stabilise the population by 2050. According to India Today, the target of the new policy is to bring the birth rate to 2.1 per thousand population by 2026 and to 1.9 by 2030.

The chief minister also virtually inaugurated 11 RT-PCR test labs and launched the Uttar Pradesh Swasthya Kendra app. “Shagun kits” were given to two couples.