India aims for fertility rate of 2.1 by 2017
August 21st 2012
India aims to meet the much-awaited goal of reaching the total fertility rate (TFR) - the average number of children born to a woman – to 2.1% by the end of 12th five year plan (2012-17). The Planning Commission is likely to set the TFR target of 2.1 in its 12th Plan document, which is likely to be cleared by National Development Council (NDC) in October. ‘India is on track to achieve the target of 2.1 by 2017, which is necessary to achieve net replacement level of unity,’ said the Plan panel’s steering committee on health. The move aims to realize the long cherished goal of the National Health Policy, 1983, and National Population Policy, 2000, the committee said. The panel, however, noted that stagnant TFR over the last two years is a matter of concern.
The Commission is likely to set the target of reducing infant mortality rate (IMR) to 28. IMR is the probability of dying between birth and one year per 1,000 live births. ‘At historical rate of decline, India is projected to have an IMR of 38 by 2015 and 34 by 2017. An achievement of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing IMR to 27 by 2015 would require an even further acceleration of this historical rate of decline,’ the steering committee said. ‘If this accelerated rate is sustained, the country can achieve an IMR of 19 by 2017,’ it added.
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Though the Commission has set the ambitious targets in the health sector for the 12th Plan, the government had failed to meet the targets for 11th Plan (2007-12).
Read the full article: The Times of India
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