No plan for law to control population: Minister

The government said on Friday it has no plans to introduce a law to control the population in the country, which currently houses nearly a fifth of the world's population.

"The governmanet has no plans to enact any law to control population," Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel said in a written reply during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha in response to a querry by Bharatiya Janata Party member Uday Pratap Singh.

"We are running several awareness schemes to control population but until there is a law, people do not bother. So I want to know whether the government is planning to bring any law in this regard," Uday Pratap Singh had asked.

She said the government has set a target to stablise the population by introducing various schemes and running awareness programmes.

"We have been successful to some extent in our efforts. The figures also prove it," she said.

Patel said that as far as National Population Policy-2000 is concerned, the long-term objective is to achieve a stable population by 2045.

Another BJP member, Anurag Thakur, sought to know from the government whether it intends to introduce an incentive-based system to control the population, to which the minister said: "We are heading in right direction."

She said the government is conducting a special awareness drive in 146 districts of 7 states to bring down the total fertility rate (TFR).

She said Mission Parivar Vikas has been launched in these high fertility districts.

Responding to a query by Indian National Lok Dal member Dushyant Chautal, the minister said the government has no plans to provide any benefits in education and employment to encourage the single child norm.

India is the second most populated country in the world and is projected to be the world's most populous country by 2022, surpassing China.

In July 2016, the population stood at 1,326,801,576, according to the United Nations.

--IANS

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