The government yesterday announced the setting up of a 100-member Population Commission to monitor and implement the population policy.
India's population crossed the one billion mark yesterday.
The jumbo-sized commission will comprise members from the media, demographers, businessmen, social workers and filmstars.
The commission, which will be headed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, includes ministers for finance, information technology, health and family welfare, education, environment and forests, leaders of the Opposition from both Houses of Parliament, besides members of Parliament. Planning Commission deputy chairman K C Pant will be the vice-chairman of the commission.
According to the technical group on population projections, population is slated to increase to 1.264 billion by 2016. The population policy, which was tabled in Parliament recently, aims to achieve population stabilisation by 2045 and total fertility replacement (TFR) levels by 2010.
"There are massive interstate differences in population growth rates, time by which the TFR of 2.1 and population stabilisation will be achieved," said Pant.
The five states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Orissa constitute 44 per cent of the total population of India. These states will contribute 55 per cent of the total increase in population from 1996-2016, he added.
The poor performance is the outcome of poverty, illiteracy and poor development which co-exist and reinforce each other, he further stated.
"In fact, one major reason for the failure of population control policy so far has been that the same set of measures have been sought to be implemented all over the country," he added.
"The commission will take a more holistic view of the population problem," he said.
The commission will meet twice a year and the Planning Commission will set up smaller groups with ministries and state governments to look into specific issues, he said.
The terms of reference of the commission include promoting synergy between various programmes dealing with demographics, educational, environmental and developmental issues.
It will also promote intersector coordination between planning and implementation of programmes across various Central and state government agencies, involving civil society and private sector and to explore possibilities of international cooperation.
The commission will work towards large-scale involvement of the people in the movement.
The population policy has set certain national socio-demographic goals to be achieved by 2010.
