Regional parties asks more health and population questions

Regional political parties like DMK, NCP, Shiv Sena were more active in asking health and population related questions in both the Houses of Parliament as compared to two national parties - the Congress and BJP in last two years, a recent analysis has found.
The report was released by Indian Association of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (IAPPD) which conducted a comparative analysis of Parliament questions on health and population for 2013-14 and 2014-15 on the occasion of World Population Day which is on July 11.
The study said that a total of 721 and 672 questions were raised by MPs in the Lok Sabha during 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively while 672 and 826 questions were raised by them in Rajya Sabha from the Health Ministry during the same period of time.

"Analysis of questions raised by different political parties in the two Houses reveals that the regional parties like DMK, NCP, Shiv Sena, SP, BJD and JDU were more active in asking health and population related questions in both the Houses as compared to the two national parties - INC and BJP," the report said.
The analysis found that although population stabilization is a major challenge for India, only a small proportion of the questions (only 4-6 per cent during 2013-14 and 2014-15 in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) were related to this important national concern of growing population.
Of the total questions raised, more than half were related to the health infrastructure which included medicines and drugs, medical institutions, health care facilities, health care manpower, research and development amongst others.

Health status such as morbidity, polio, HIV/AIDS and others formed another one-fifth of the total questions.
"Population related issues such as population growth, population stabilization and others were thrust of only a small number of the parliament questions," the analysis said.
IAPPD is a UN- Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) empaneled national level autonomous non-profit promotional organization by a select group of parliamentarians from both the Houses.