Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare chaired the virtual meeting on the occasion of World Population Day, here today, in the presence of Ashwini Kumar Choubey, MoS (HFW).

While highlighting the success of the RMNCAH+N programme, Dr Harsh Vardhan highlighted that the strategy of putting family planning at the core has helped to achieve remarkable results. “In the last decade alone, our Crude Birth Rate (CBR) has reduced from 21.8 (SRS 2011) to 20 (SRS 2018) while the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has declined from 2.4 (SRS 2011) to 2.2 (SRS 2018). And the teenage fertility has halved from 16 (NFHS III) to 7.9 (NFHS IV).” He noted that these efforts have taken India closer to reaching the replacement fertility level of 2.1 and 25 out of 36 States/UTs have already achieved replacement level fertility.

Dr Harsh Vardhan also said that India is a fundamental part of the global FP2020 movement, “The Government of India has invested substantial domestic funding to achieve the ambitious FP2020 goals. The major initiatives under Family Planning include Mission Parivar Vikas, Injectable Contraceptive MPA, Family Planning – Logistics Management Information System (LMIS), Family Planning Communications Campaign.

The National Family Planning Program has introduced the Injectable Contraceptive in the public health system under the “Antara” program. This contraceptive is highly effective and will meet the changing needs of couples and help women space their pregnancies.” “All this investment has paid us rich dividends in terms of averting nearly 5.5 crore unintended pregnancies, 1.1 crore total births, 18 lakh unsafe abortions and 30,000 maternal deaths as a result of contraceptive use in 2019 alone, as per Track 20 Estimates.”, he added.

The Health Minister also released the AB-HWC Mobile application developed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.