India's projected population for 2023 at 138.81 crore: Centre

“As per the report of the Technical Group on Population Projections (TGPP) of July 2020, chaired by Registrar General of India (RGI), the projected population of the country, in the year 2023 is 138.81 crore,” said the Minister of State for Health Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar.

New Delhi: The Centre on Friday said that the projected population in India in 2023 is 138.81 crore. “As per the report of the Technical Group on Population Projections (TGPP) of July 2020, chaired by Registrar General of India (RGI), the projected population of the country, in the year 2023 is 138.81 crore,” said the Minister of State for Health Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar.

She was responding to a written query raised by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(DMK) MP in the Lok Sabha TR Paarivendhar. Pawar informed that her Government accords top priority to the National Family Planning Program, which is guided by the tenets of the National Population Policy 2000 and National Health Policy 2017, to address the unmet need for Family Planning.

Highlighting that the central government was able to control the population explosion, Pawar said that the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) declined to 2.0 in 2019-21 which is below the replacement level. “31 out of 36 States and UTs have achieved replacement level fertility. Modern contraceptive usage has increased to 56.5 percent. The unmet need for family planning has decreased to 9.4 percent. The Crude Birth Rate (CBR) has also declined to 19.5 in 2020,” said Pawar.

Explaining the steps taken by her government, Pawar said that expanded contraceptive choices with the inclusion of new contraceptives namely injectable contraceptives (Antara programme) and Centchroman (Chhaya) have been started.

“Mission Parivar Vikas (MPV) is implemented in 13 states to substantially increase the access to contraceptives and family planning services. Compensation scheme for sterilization acceptors which provides compensation for loss of wages to the beneficiary and also to the service provider team for conducting sterilization," Pawar said.

"Post-pregnancy contraception in the form of Post-partum Intra-uterine contraceptive device (PPIUCD), post-abortion Intrauterine contraceptive device (PAIUCD), and post-partum sterilization (PPS) are also provided to beneficiaries,” she added. She said that a scheme for home delivery of contraceptives by ASHAs at the doorstep of beneficiaries has also been stated.

“There is a family planning logistics management information system (FP-LMIS) to ensure last mile availability of family planning commodities across all the levels of health facilities,” the minister said.