A three-day Population Summit to focus on the urgent need to curb the alarming rise in population has been opened by Vice President Krishan Kant in New Delhi on Friday. The summit, which will be attended by 1200 delegates from India and abroad, especially from South Asian and South-East Asian countries, is being jontly organised by the Department of Family Welfare under the health ministry and Rotary International.
“The alarming growth in world population is creating increased pressure on the infrastructure, economy, environment, primary health care and nutrition,” Health and Family Welfare Minister C P Thakur told reporters on Thursdsay. “While the global population has risen three-folds during this century, India's population grew by nearly five times from 230 million to one billion during this period,” he said. The three major reasons for this are that 60 per cent of the country's population is in the reproductive age group, the unmet needs for contraception and the high Infant Mortality Rate. The issues involved in population control, and success stories of Indian states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, as well as countries like Sri Lanka that have achieve success in population control would be discussed at the meet.
Bureau Report