Summary Record of the
Conference on Convergence of Social Sector Programmes for Population Stabilization
held on 4th October 2001
at Hotel Kanishka, Ashoka Road, New Delhi.

 
 
1. The list of Union Ministers, Members of the Planning Commission, Members of the NCP, Secretaries to the Government of India, Principal Advisers and Advisers of the Planning Commission and other distinguished persons who attended the Conference are given at Annexure-I.
2. Mrs. Krishna Singh, Member Secretary, NCP welcomed the dignitaries and distinguished personalities present at the meeting and stated that after the first Conference of the National Commission on Population (NCP) held in July, 2000, a number of initiatives were taken to promote inter-sectoral coordination and bring about a synergy in the policies and programmes of various Departments of the Government of India and State Governments which are relevant for reaching the goals set out in the National Population Policy (NPP) 2000. After the inaugural address by Shri K.C. Pant, Vice-Chairman, NCP and Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission a presentation on the present demographic scenario in the country and an overview of the activities of the NCP would be made which will be followed by short presentations by the Departments of Elementary Education, Woman and Child Development, Tribal Affairs and Slums bringing out the relevance of the programmes of these sectors for achieving demographic stabilization. Similar presentations will also be made by the Ministry of Rural Development about the role of Panchayati Raj Institutions and by the Water Supply Division of the Planning Commission on drinking water supply and sanitation. After this, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Hon’ble Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Anant Kumar, Hon’ble Minister for Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation and Shri Jual Oram, Hon’ble Minister for Tribal Affairs would address the conference which could be followed by discussions on important points depending upon the availability of time.
3. Shri K.C. Pant, Vice-Chairman, NCP and Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission in his inaugural address stated that the NPP 2000 made a departure from previous attempts at family planning by widening the whole concept of population stabilization programme to link the same with various social sector programmes concerned with the improvement in the quality of life of the people which again has a direct relationship with the desire for a smaller family for giving better chances to the children in life, educating them and having a sense of confidence about the survivability of the child. There is no doubt that in due course as social changes take place, education spreads, the age of marriage of the girl goes up and more people insist on economic development, gradually the demographic stabilization would take place gradually. But it may not be possible for us to wait for these developments and hence, the need for reorienting policies and programmes of various sectors to help the process of early demographic stabilization.
We have the example of China which has been able to achieve spectacular results in bringing down the population growth. Though we may not exactly copy the Chinese model and though it is important that we fashion our programmes in harmony with democratic principles, promoting vigorously the small family norm should form an integral part of the policies and programmes of all social sectors because early population stabilization would be of great help in achieving the targets and objectives in each sector. The burgeoning population of the country is the most important factor responsible for the prevalence of high levels of unmet needs in various sectors of development like health care, family welfare, education, nutrition, water supply, sanitation, housing, etc. which in turn leads to higher levels of human fertility. He also referred to the results of the population Census 2001, the inter-State and intra-State demographic differences and the tremendous progress which have already been made since independence and stated that there are definite indication that the country is entering a phase of rapidly declining fertility. He gave some details of the initiatives taken by the NCP after the first conference of the Commission and stated that the recommendations made by the different Working Groups and Advisory Groups formed by the NCP and the programme of action emerging out of them would be considered in separate meetings with the concerned Ministries at the Centre and States. They would also be taken into consideration while formulating the policies and programmes for the Tenth Five Year Plan. Shri Pant stated that the presence of important Central Ministers, Members of the Planning Commission, Members of the NCP and Secretaries to the Government of India in today’s meeting would help place population stabilization issues in the proper perspective and ensure necessary coordination and cooperation between various Departments in population stabilization efforts.
  Address by Shri Jual Oram, Hon’ble Union Minister for Tribal Affairs
4. Shri Jual Oram appreciated the analytical presentations made by different departments about the social sector programmes. He stated that if the policies and programmes outlined in the presentations are realized, there is no doubt that our goals and objectives would be achieved. While emphasizing the need for improving the statistics, he said that often hospitals are there which do not function and school buildings are there but no teachers to teach. We should take into account the ground realities regarding infrastructure etc. and should not base our plans on the jugglery of figures. Regarding the importance of PRIs, he stated that earlier everything including marriages and divorce etc. used to take place through PRIs. However, in between we gave up that system. But now we are again going back to PRIs and ISM&H system based on herbs etc. In ancient times people could prevent the birth of more children whenever they wanted by using local herbs and medicines. The Minister also emphasized the need for convergence and coordination of various programmes having a bearing on population issues. He appreciated the initiative taken by the NCP in this direction and hoped that we should be able to achieved the targets set by the NPP-2000.
  Address by Shri Anant Kumar, Hon’ble Union Minister for Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation
5. Shri Anant Kumar, Hon’ble Union Minister for Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation mentioned that the present urban population of 28.5 crores out of total of 102 crores is close to the 1947 total population of 30 crores. He recalled that there was 16% urban population in 1947 and hence there had been 12% increase in urbanization since independence. Despite the population explosion, the country has progressed during the last 50 years. Focussing on the urban slums, the Hon’ble Minister said that there are 75 million slum population out of 285 million urban population and astonishingly 46% of the total slum population are living in three mega cities, each having more than 10 million population. The incidence of urban poverty is high in major urban cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai and a reduction in the urban poverty is noticed when we come to smaller cities and towns. He mentioned that though unfortunate, the country was having two types of development models as also some regions of the country was having different development and delivery models. He mentioned that the growth in population is linked to the quality of life which depends upon basic amenities, health, education, employment opportunities and social environment. In this connection he referred to the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of providing shelter for all by 2010 and mentioned that we have 200 million households in the country, out of those 33 million families were shelterless, out of which 17.74 million families were shelterless in urban areas and the rest in rural areas. The incidence of homelessness is more in urban areas as compared to rural areas. Then he stated the three-fold mandate of his ministry as follows:
•   
For the first time the ministry is coming out with the National Slum Policy with an integrated and comprehensive approach for the development of quality of life in urban slums having direct bearing on population explosion. He stated that the National Slum Policy (NSP), to be presented to the Nation before the winter session of Parliament, would be the benchmark with all the ingredients such as security of tenure, basic amenities, the educational and employment opportunities, the environment and the social infrastructure.
•  
After the announcement of the Hon’ble Prime Minister to provide housing for all in urban areas, Rs. 1000 crore has been provided in the budget in Valmiki Ambedkar Malin Basti Awas Yojana (VAMBAY) and Rs. 2000 crore has been taken as loan from HUDCO. This Rs. 3000 crore with 50% subsidy and 50% grant would be provided with unit costs Rs. 60,000 for mega cities, Rs. 50,000 for million plus cities and Rs. 40,000 for other urban areas. He mentioned that this was the first ever grant based housing scheme in the entire nation being launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister. He said that for the first year sanction for construction of 4 lakh houses would be given. The urban development Ministry along with HUDCO will provide 3 million houses in three years. He mentioned that in fact, money for more than 3.5 million houses have been allocated and half of them have already been constructed.
•  
Lastly, he mentioned about ‘Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan’ to provide shauchalaya throughout the country. For this programme Rs. 200 crore was taken from VAMBAY and Rs. 200 crore was provided by the HUDCO and through this one lakh sanitary complexes could be provided across the country. He stated that one more action programme was required for drinking water facility which has to be enunciated, articulated and implemented. He stated that there should be balanced development of rural and urban areas to tackle the problem of migration to urban areas. The Planning Commission, Ministries of HRD, Finance, Urban Development and Rural Development, Health & Family Welfare, Social Welfare and Tribal Affairs should come together to reorient, restructure and converge their schemes for a focussed upgradation of the quality of life and control of population.
  Address by Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi, Union Minister, HRD
6. Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi, Hon’ble Union Minister for Human Resource Development welcomed the initiatives of Shri K. C. Pant relating to population stabilization, which has been his concern for a long time. He appreciated the centred and well-focussed presentations made by the NCP and various Ministries/Departments and emphasized the need for programmes to reach the remote areas and to make people aware of the policies and programmes. While mentioning about the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan started by the Ministry of HRD, he pointed out that unless the machinery for reaching the programmes at the grass-root level worked properly, we would not be able to achieve our objectives. He mentioned that there were 100-125 schemes at the block level and it would be a very difficult task for a Block Development Officer to monitor all those programmes. Most of the programmes are running on paper only. He stressed the need for proper monitoring system to check whether the money was reaching to the level for which it had been sanctioned and also to strengthen and energize the education and health infrastructures at the grass-root level. Our development model is based on reductionist approach of the western world. We could not see problems in society in overall context. Population problem is related to education, health and sanitation as also health and education are related to each other and the development of the country is related to all these factors. The highly compartmentalized approach, dividing developmental issues into various segments, as it is happening now, is detrimental to progress. So, we should adopt integrated and holistic approach to synergize, coordinate and converge all the programmes of different social sectors to achieve better success. He said that he was happy with this exercise of social sector coordination initiated by Shri K. C. Pant. He gave the example of unification of Europe in the global context and emphasized the need for all Departments to work together to promote synergy in all developmental programmes.
The Hon’ble Minister also drew attention to the problems of ten lakh women working in Anganwadi centres. They are the largest Mahila Shakti in the World but they used to get less honorarium and do more work. He said that we could overcome all problems regarding immunization, health of children, pregnant mothers, adolescent girls, sanitation etc. if the concerned Departments would work together. We could change the country within five years. He said that nowadays we were accepting the indigenous system of medicine which we used to neglect earlier. As rightly stated by Shri Jual Oram, we must promote our indigenous system for improving the quality of health and nutrition. He again emphasized the need for integrated and holistic approach for solving problems and hoped that we would get solutions to all problems regarding population stabilization under the able leadership of Shri K.C. Pant.
 
7. On behalf of the NPC, a CD Rom presentation was made on the demographic situation in the country, major activities of the NCP and highlights of the recommendations made by the various Working Groups and Advisory Groups set up by the Commission.
8. At the request of the NCP, the District Magistrates of Jodhpur and Faridabad attended the conference and spoke about certain field level initiatives. These districts were among those visited by NCP teams to understand grass-root level realities and appreciate local initiatives.
9. Shri R.K. Mishra, DM, Jodhpur highlighted the role of women’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in Jodhpur District as a possible model for convergence of different social sector programmes. These micro groups generally have 10 to 20 members. Because of their honesty and transparency they exert tremendous influence on others. The group leader is basically a facilitator. They value their self-esteem and function on the principle of mutual aid. They are not anti-establishment because most of them are created by Government initiative. They also interact well with the Panchayati Raj Institutions and other service providers. Any social programme which is meant to give a better standard of living and security is readily welcomed by them. Another important point is that these groups are caste neutral, SC/ST members and non-SC/ST members are grouped together. The most important thing is they are ready to plan and they are ready to wait for results. The items identified as priority for micro planning by the SHGs were the following :
i.
   Immunization of children with quality and in time
ii.
   Safe delivery for pregnant women
iii.
   Flexibility in sterilization programme keeping in view crop schedule, festivals, etc.
iv.
  Basic medical care in the village at the sub-centre level
v.
   Health Insurance Schemes like Jan Arogaya Yojana , Rajya Rajeshwari Yojana, etc.
vi.
   Nutritional Support twice a year for mal-nourished children and expectant mothers.
vii.
   Counseling
He stated that about 100 micro plans were prepared at the field level with the help of these SHGs who themselves prepared the list of children for immunization, suggested the schedule for immunization camps etc. These micro plans are consolidated at the levels of the Sub-Divisional Officer and DM and District Health Society. This ensures synergy and provision of services successfully. There are hundreds of women in Jodhpur District who have done remarkable work in the field without much assistance from the Government. A little bit of help will definitely enable them to prepare for a better tomorrow.
 
10. Shri S.C. Jain, DM, Faridabad stated that his district has witnessed a tremendous growth in population because of the influx of migrant labour and because of its proximity to Delhi. Dealing with the problems of the minority dominated Mewat area of the district visited by the NCP team he stated that there is a strong inhibition among the minority community in this area in sending their children to school, especially the girls even though there are sufficient educational facilities available. The teachers are also reluctant to go to this remote area of the district. He suggested that education should be made compulsory for the children. Secondly, Urdu language should be taught as a compulsory subject to attract more students because the experience of English medium schools in getting students is not very encouraging. Thirdly, girl students should be given certain incentives such as scholarship, uniform, books, etc. in order to remove the strong inhibition in sending girls to schools. It may also be helpful if more lady teachers are posted in these areas. Generally trained teachers manipulate their postings in urban areas and they don’t bother to go to rural areas. It will be useful if some sort of incentives are given for teachers and other trained staff who are posted in these difficult rural surroundings. A strong adult literacy programme should also be undertaken in the locality. If the parents are educated, they will definitely like to send their children to the schools.
  Presentation by Shri B.K. Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Elementary Education and Literacy
11. The National Population Policy indicates two goals in the field of education:
     
i.   make school education upto the age of 14 free and compulsory
ii.   reduce dropout rates at primary and secondary level below 20%
Shri B.K. Chaturvedi stated that there is a co-relation between literacy rate and population growth. Generally speaking, States with low literacy, especially low female literacy have shown a higher decadal growth in population. Such a relationship can also be noticed at the district level. As regards policy intervention, the Government has already decided to bring forward a Bill in the coming winter session of Parliament for making education free and compulsory for children between the age of 6 to 14 years and the Right to Education will be made a Fundamental Right. Further, the provision of early childhood care for children upto the age of 6 will be included among the Directive Principles of State Policy. Provision of opportunities for education for all children from 6 to 14 years will be made a Fundamental Duty of the parents and guardians. Three programmes of intervention for the Tenth Plan period are the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Mahila Samakhya and Adult Education. The main aim of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is to make elementary education compulsory and free, improve the quality of education, bridge the gender and social gaps in education and eliminate the dropout of children from schools. At present the gap between male and female literacy is 21% at national level which is much more in rural areas. Provision of primary school or alternative school within 1 km of each habitation is a major objective of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Training of community leaders and involving village education committees, mother committees and parent-teacher committees in the education programme and making special provision for children with disabilities are other important aspects.
The Mahila Samakhya started in 1989 is for the education and empowerment of women from socially and educationally marginalized groups in the rural areas. Under these programmes women discuss their own issues and problems and decide as to what can be done to solve them. The objective of the programme is to provide knowledge and information to women and thereby help empower them. This programme has been found to be very successful and it was even applauded by the UNESCO. Under the Adult Education programme the national literacy mission imparts functional literacy to non-literates in the 15-35 age groups. The present objective is to achieve full literacy, i.e., the sustainable threshold level of 75% by 2005. The three major aspects of this programme are total literacy, post-literacy campaigns and continuing education by which skills are learned, those skills are protected and all illiterates are mopped up. Interestingly, about 60% of the learners and volunteers are women. It is also proposed to institutionalize population concerns in adult literacy programmes through population and development education programme.
 
  Presentation by Shri P.G.D. Chakraborty, Joint Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development
 
12. Shri Chakraborty stated that 7 out of the 14 national social demographic goals to be achieved by 2010 as outlined in the NPP directly concerned women and children who constitute about 70.76% of the country’s population. Nearly 22 million children are born every year in India out of which 22.5% are born underweight. 70 in every 1000 of our children die before completing one year. The Maternal Mortality Rate also remains very high at 408 per one lakh of live births. 52% of women and 74% of pregnant women are anaemic. The conditions of women and children in India are worse than those in countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Egypt and other South Asian countries. The NPP target of bringing down IMR below 30 per thousand live births by 2010may not be reached by 10 major States accounting for about 62% of the population of the country and 69% of the growth in population.
Similarly, the target of bringing down MMR to below 100 per one lakh live births seems to be a difficult task to achieve. Major factors responsible for high IMR and MMR are underage marriage of girls and consequent very large number of young mothers, too frequent deliveries, high birth orders, inadequate RCH services and under-nutrition of women and children. The cycle of mal-nutrition starts with the household food insecurity and gender discrimination leading to mal-nourished girls and mothers leading to low birth weight children. This combined with inadequate RCH care results in high IMR and MMR. Maternal mal-nutrition perpetuates inter-generational mal-nutrition. The major elements of intervention strategies are the converting the country’s food security into nutrition security for mother and child, empowering women to have access to resources and decision making, converge health and nutrition related services at the grass-roots, involve community, PRIs, SHGs and NGOs and adopt a sustained and concerted campaign in print, electronic and folk media. He stated that the goals of NPP 2000 should be further decomposed to annual goals for each State and each demographically weak district. Adequate resource allocation for achieving the goals should be ensured. A sound system of monitoring be put in place to monitor the progress and for mid-course corrections if necessary.
  Presentation made by Ms. Sudha Pillai, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development
13 Ms. Sudha Pillai highlighted the role of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in population stabilization. She stated that the PRIs and SHGs should be activated to tackle problems like universalisation of primary education, compliance of legal age of marriage and elimination of discriminatory practices and social mores against women. They can also generate awareness about the availability, accessibility and affordability of health and family welfare services. Women Panchayati Raj members should be given special training and made key resource personnel. The functionaries of various social sector programmes including health and family welfare should be made accountable to elected representatives of PRIs at different levels. The health committee of the Gram Panchayat should be headed by a woman Panchayat member. Registration of births, deaths, marriages and pregnancies should be done at the village level through the PRIs. PRIs and SHGs can also exert social and moral pressure on couples in the reproductive age group to adopt the small healthy family norm and to create awareness on various social issues having a bearing on population stabilization. She also suggested that information on demographic issues and health education should be made available through the local languages. She further drew attention to the recommendations made by the Task Force on Panchayati Raj Institutions demarcating the activities and responsibilities for different levels of PRIs such as the district, intermediate and Gram Panchayat levels.
  Presentation by Shri P.S.S. Thomas, Adviser, Planning Commission on Rural Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation :
14. Safe drinking water and improved sanitation play a major role in human well-being. Shri Thomas stated that water could also be a source of spread of diseases and had a bearing on infant mortality rate, death rate, longevity and productivity. Women and children are particularly vulnerable to water contamination. It is said that 70-80% of sickness are water and sanitation related. Though much progress has been made in covering rural areas with water supply, there are still about 19,000 not covered and 1,60,000 partially covered habitations. In the area of sanitation only 20% of rural people have access to sanitary latrines. There is need for full participation of villagers and beneficiaries in the planning design and management of water supply and sanitation schemes. Training, education and dissemination of information about the various issues involved can help conservation of water resources and improving the sanitary conditions.
  Presentation by Shri S. K. Naik, Secretary, Tribal Affairs:
15. Shri Naik stated that the scheduled tribes were among the weakest sections in our society and they lived in comparative isolation in varied ecological and geo-climatic conditions ranging from hills to forests, inaccessible areas and plains. The tribals did not constitute a unified group and consisted of a large number of groups that differed from each other in socio-economic conditions. Most tribal populations lived in remote and low-density areas having no adequate access to basic amenities, education, employment opportunities and affordable health care services
Majority of tribals had high levels of morbidity arising from poor nutrition, particularly in situations where they were involuntarily displaced or resettled. He also mentioned that they had low levels of literacy coupled with high infant, child and maternal mortality and hence they remained one of the major under-served population groups in the coverage of reproductive and child health services. The tribals also suffered from anaemia and diseases like tuberculosis, leprosy, falciparum malaria, sickle cell disease, etc. Due to weak government infrastructure both in terms of physical facilities and manpower, poor means of communication, low education and awareness levels and deep-rooted socio-cultural traditions, earlier initiatives like area specific RCH programmes, anti malaria programmes and implementation of Tribal Sub-Plans could achieve only limited success. He also mentioned that there was wide variability- regionally and between the tribes. While some tribal communities have adopted more or less the way of life of non-tribals at one end of the spectrum, there are 75 Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) with varying population growth rates, mostly declining. Also the health indicators of tribal populations in North Eastern States were comparatively better than their counterparts elsewhere in the country due to high literacy, better awareness and utilization of available health services.
Certain demographic parameters relating to tribals are:
•  
Infant mortality is higher in tribes as compared to non-tribes (79.8% of tribal children were anaemic and only 26% received all vaccinations);
•
Maternal mortality is high (43.1% tribal pregnant women did not received any antenatal check up and 37.7% did not received any TT injections);
•
81.1% tribal pregnant women delivered at home ( only 30% deliveries are safe);
•
Girls marrying below 18 years in tribal areas are as high as 60%;
•
Decadal growth rate of ST population at 31.64% is higher than that of the total population at 23.51%;
•
Many Primitive Tribal Groups have low growth rate of population which may lead to their extinction.
Regarding health infrastructure, he pointed out that the norms for establishment of sub-centres, PHCs and CHCs had been relaxed for Tribal Areas- a sub-centre was opened for 3,000 instead of 5,000 populations; a PHC for 20,000 instead of a norm of 30, 000 population and a CHC for 80,000 instead of 1,20,000 population. He mentioned that the nation-wide model was not quite relevant in respect of many tribal regions especially for the inaccessible areas. He suggested a flexible approach regarding population norms as undertaken by the Department of Women and Child Development in their ICDS Scheme in tribal areas. The following strategy could be adopted:
•  
All weather accessibility, minimum possible distance from the residential area (should be within 3 km to access a sub-centre) and a flexible population norm would be more appropriate.
•  
The States have to work out the exact number of sub-centres, PHCs, CHCs on this basis through a process of consultation at micro level involving Panchayati Raj Institutions and local functionaries.
•  
The population figures of Census-2001 should be taken into consideration and efforts should be made to fill up the gaps.
Following are the strategies suggested for providing direct health services in tribal areas:
•  
Village health/ delivery huts/ ethno-medicine centres may be set up in the village to carry out routine health activities, group meetings, IEC, deliveries etc. The TBA or the local traditional tribal medicine practitioner will look after these huts and refer the cases to the village sub-centre clinics/PHC/CHC.
•  
Hold fixed day monthly clinics at the village level (Single Window) in difficult far-flung areas, which need to be client friendly in terms of services and timing and to combine nutrition, sanitation, counselling, immunization, ANC, PNC, treatment of minor ailments, etc.
•  
Mobile clinic to provide curative and preventive care once a month at the sub-centre level.
•  
Wherever the government system is remarkably deficient/inadequate, the total responsibility of managing the delivery of health and RCH services in a sub-centre /PHC/CHC area may be handed over to the credible NGOs.
While talking about the practice, utility and acceptability of the Indian System of Medicine (ISM), Shri Naik mentioned that there were over 6 lakh ISM & H practitioners serving in remote rural areas and urban slums accepted by the community and in order to improve the quality of these systems and the efficacy of the practitioners, documentation and integration of the ISM, particularly the tribal system of medicine was urgently required coupled with restoration of lost practices with the objective of improving the tribal health and nutrition. Shri Naik also said that the tribal communities were dependant upon indigenous system of medicine which required a regular supply of local flora, fauna or standardized medication derived from those and traditionally, tribes were also dependant on natural sources for other needs such as primary an supplementary nutrition, contraceptives and general livelihood. The Government of India had recognized the potential of traditional medicine practices and a ‘Medicinal Plant Board’ had been set up for an integrated development of the medicinal plants sector and it was expected to formalize and organize cultivation of medicinal plants, and their collection, marketing and trade, coordinate efforts of all the stakeholders of the sector and ensure health for all by improving the availability of herbal products, besides generating employment to tribals on a sustainable basis.
 Presentation by Shri S. S. Chattopadhyay, Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development & Poverty Alleviation on  “Population Problem in Urban Slums”
16. Shri S. S. Chattopadhyay, Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development & Poverty Alleviation stated that the decadal growth rate of population during 1991-2001 in urban areas at 31.13% was higher than that of rural areas at 17.97%. In 2001, there were 35 million plus cities having 37.8% of urban population. The projected figures for million plus cities in 2011 and 2021 would be 53 and 70 respectively. The annual growth rate of slum population is 5 to 6% whereas this figure was 2% for total population, 3% for urban population and 4% for population of large cities. There is a direct correlation between the increase in urban poor and increase in slum population.
The following contributory causes for slum settlements:
 
•  
Rural push – Urban pull effect
•  
Large scale migration in search of employment, economic opportunities & better quality of life from rural areas to urban areas and from small towns to big cities;
•  
Concentration of urban population in one or few large cities (Primate City Syndrome);
•  
Unauthorized squatting on marginal lands.
 
He said that the slums were often viewed as - “Eyesores”; “ Rings of Misery”; “Creeping Cancers”. However, the slums provide support to cities in the provision of information services and act as reservoirs of cheap labour and contributes a significant proportion of urban income through the informal sector. The major problems of slum population are lack of security of land tenure, potable drinking water, sanitation, employment, economic opportunities, facilities for health, hygiene, child care, education, skill acquisition, access to credit, proximity of shelter to jobs and affordable and acceptable shelter
There are two alternative approaches for rehabilitation of slum dwellers. The first one is the in situ development of squatter settlements through provision of drinking water supply, sanitation facilities, waste disposal system, excess waste within the overall settlements, strong water drainage and street electrification. The second approach is to provide alternative sites and locations for rehabilitation through site and service land development schemes, core or skeletal housing and adoption of agency-oriented approach for beneficiary-oriented approaches. In regard to security of tenure, there is need for legislation for conferring tenure of land/pakka households to prevent unlawful affection by landlords. Relaxation of residential and commercial development norms pertaining to FAR, land use reclassification and provision of external and internal infrastructure are rather important measures which could be taken for the development of slum areas. Shri Chattopadhyay mentioned that along with slum development programmes, rapid development of the rural inter-land, small and medium towns and satellite towns is necessary to ensure balanced regional development. Regarding financing of slum and squatter upgradation programmes, there is need for evolving micro finance as a development initiative for the poor and slum dwellers with special focus on women, NGOs and Self-Help Groups can play a major role in developing the system for channelizing and recovery of credit. Financial institutions providing sectoral credit may have to provide composite credit for production, consumption and housing through a central window. He stated that the draft National Slum Policy (NSP) on the anvil have the following objectives :
 
•  
Grant of tenurial rights to all residents on tenable sites owned or acquired by Government;
•  
Full property rights on resettlements sites and
•  
Facilitating tenure on privately owned land on which tenable slum settlements exit by acquiring those lands through negotiations.
 
 For the improvement of National Slum Development Programme (NSDP), he mentioned that the following points  were  being taken into consideration:
 
•  
Conversion of National Slum Development Programme from Additional Central Assistance (ACA) to a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with 100% grant in the Tenth Five Year Plan pending with the Planning Commission.
•  
Increase in Annual Budget allocation from Rs.365.81 crore (2000-01) to Rs.100 crores.
•  
Improving Management Information System (MIS) for better monitoring.
 
Shri Chattopadhyay then stated the Valmiki-Ambedkar Malin Basti Awas Yojana (VAMBAY) which is a new scheme for urban poor in the slums announced by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on Independence Day, 2001 to facilitate the construction of dwelling units annually for Slum Dwellers through Central Subsidy of Rs.1000 crores along with HUDCO’s loan assistance for Rs.1000 crores (50 % subsidy: 50% loan ) which would enable construction of 4 lakh units with unit costs as Rs.60,000 for 6 Mega cities, Rs. 45,000 for Million+ cities and Rs.40,000 for other urban areas and the scheme is to be launched on November 1st , 2001. Then he stated the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan -a sub-component of VAMBAY which is the National City Sanitation Project to cover all the State capitals and Million-plus cities with the objective of 100% coverage for sanitation facilities for all, during the 10th Plan period and tom provide new toilets or conversion for formal sector; Community toilet scheme for slum dwellers. This scheme is started as a pilot project in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Guwahati. This scheme also covers effluents and wastes for production of manure, vermiculture, bio-gas cogeneration etc.
 
The presence of important Union Ministers, Members of the Planning Commission, Members of the NCP, Secretaries to the Government of India and presentations made by different Departments of Government of India were useful to bring population stabilization issues in proper perspective. The recommendations made by different Working Groups/ Advisory Groups formed by the NCP and the programme of action emerging out of them highlighted in the presentations by different Departments would also be taken into consideration while formulating the policies and programmes for the Tenth Five Year Plan. It was felt that the programmes and policies of various social sectors need reorientation and convergence at the Central, State, District, Block and village levels. Private sector participation and integration of indigenous system of medicine is necessary for improving the quality and coverage of health care and family welfare services. Need for proper monitoring system was also emphasized to check whether the benefits of the programmes were reaching the target groups.
 
   
Annexure- I
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS OF THE MEETING ON SOCIAL SECTOR CONVERGENCE HELD ON 4TH OCTOBER 2001 IN KANISHKA HOTEL, NEW DELHI
     
1.   Shri K. C. Pant, Dy Chairman, Planning Commission & Vice Chairman, National Commission on Population
2.   Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi, Union Minister, Human Resource Development.
3.   Shri Anant Kumar, Union Minister, Urban Development & Poverty Alleviation
4.   Shri Jual Oram, Union Minister, Tribal Affairs
5.   Dr. S. P. Gupta, Member, Planing Commission
6.   Shri Sompal, Member, Planing Commission
7.   Shri Kamaluddin Ahmed, Member, Planing Commission
8.   Mrs. Margaret Alva, Member of Parliament
9.   Ms. Jaya Jaitly, Member of Parliament & Member, National Commission on Population
10.   Shri Tarlochan Singh, Vice Chairman, National Minority Commission, Member, National Commission on Population
11.   Shri Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM
12.   Dr. J.K. Jain, President, Jain TV, Member, National Commission on Population
13.   Dr. Nina Puri, FPAI, Mumbai, Member, National Commission on Population
14.   Mrs. Rami Chhabra, Member, National Commission on Population
15.   Dr. R. Srinivasan, Member, National Commission on Population
16.   Ms. Imrana Qadeer, Professor, JNU, Member, National Commission on Population
17.   Shri Alok Mukhopadhyayh, CEO, VHAI and Member, National Commission on Population
18.   Dr. Saroj Pachauri, Population Council, Member, National Commission on Population
19.   Mrs. Krishna Singh, Member Secretary, National Commission on Population
20.   Ms. K. Aggarwal, Principal Adviser, Planning Commission
21.   Shri M.D. Asthana, Principal Adviser, Planning Commission
22.   Shri A.R. Nanda, Secretary, Department of Family Welfare
23.   Shri R.V. Vaidhanatha Ayyar, Secretary, Dept. of Women and Child Development
24.   Shri S.S. Sharma, Secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports
25.   Shri S.S. Chattopadhyay, Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation
26.   Shri B.K. Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Elementary Education
27.   Shri S.K. Naik, Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs
28.   Shri Pratyush Sinha, Addl. Secretary and FA, Planning Commission
29.   Shri P.S.S. Thomas, Adviser, Planning Commission
30.   Dr. Prema Ramachandran, Adviser (Health),Planning Commission
31.   Ms. Firoza Mehrotra, Adviser (Admn, PC and MLP), Planning Commission
32.   Dr. Rohini Nayyar, Adviser (RD), Planning Commission
33.   Ms. T.K. Sarojini, Planning Commission
34.   Shri B.P. Misra, Addl. Secretary, Department of Expenditure
35.   Ms. Uma Pillai, Addl. Secretary, Ministry of Labour
36.   Ms. Vineeta Rai, Addl. Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation
37.   Shri P.C. Rawal, Addl. Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
38.   Shri V. Asokan, Joint Secretary, National Commission on Population
39.   Ms. Sudha Pillai, JS, Ministry of Rural Development
40.   Ms. Meenakshi Datta Ghosh, Joint Secretary (Policy), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
41.   Shri P.G. D. Chakraborti, Joint Secretary, Dept. of Women and Child Development
42.   Shri D.K. Trehan, Economic & Statistical Advisor, Deptt of Agriculture
43.   Shri K.V. Krishnan, Economic Adviser, Deptt of Health
44.   Shri K. Chandramouli, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Labour
45.   Shri T.R. Malakar, DDG, Doordarshan
46.   Shri S. Sen, DDG, CII, New Delhi
47.   Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder, Sulabh Social Service Organization
48.   Dr. Padam Singh, ADG, ICMR, New Delhi
49.   Dr. Kamal Taori, Inter-State Council
50.   Shri J.L. Pandey, NCERT, New Delhi
51.   Prof. S.C. Gulati, PRC, Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi
52.   Prof. Mari Bhat, PRC, New Delhi
53.   Mrs. Ranbir Gujral, Indian Nursing Council
54.   Shri C.R.K. Nair, Director, Ministry of Rural Development
55.   Shri S.K. Bansal, Under Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development
56.   Shri A.P. Nigam, JSL
57.   Dr. D.K. Mangal, Representative of Government of Rajasthan
58.   Ms. Valsala Kutty, Director, Deptt. Of Drinking Water Supply
59.   Shri R.C. Joshi, Consultant Media, National Commission on Population
60.   Shri Arvind Pandey, Director, Institute for Research in Medical Statistics
61.   Shri K.N. Unni, Dy. Registrar General, RGI
62.   Dr. V.D. Lall, Director SDS
63.   Dr. Stuti Lall, Society for Development Studies
64.   Shri Afzal Amanullah, Secretary, Health & Family Welfare, Government of Bihar
65.   Shri J.P. Sharma, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Uttar Pradesh
66.   Shri Rajat Kumar Mishra, DM, Jodhpur
67.   Shri S.C.Jain, Deputy Commissioner, Faridabad
68.   Shri K.T. Gurumukhi, TCPO
69.   Shri V. Suresh, CMD, HUDCO
70.   Dr. C.H. S. Sastry, Deptt. Of ISM & H
71.   Dr. Kaushal Kumar, UTTHAN, NGO
72.   Shri Vikram Diesh, D-604, Anand Lok Society, Mayur Vihar, Phase-I, Delhi-110091
73.   Shri K.N. Gupta, Sulabh International Social Service Organization
74.   Ms. Abha Bahadur, Chairperson, Sulabh International Social Service Organization
75.   Shri Nagesh Singh, Director (RD), Planning Commission
76.   Dr. G.L. Jambholkar, Dy. Educational Advisor (School), Ministry of Human Resource Development
77.   Shri K.P. Katailiha, Dy. Adviser, W.R. Division, Planning Commission
78.   Dr. K.K. Kapur, Haryana
79.   Dr. Satish Kalara, Haryana
80.   Shri Arvind Mehta, PS to MOS (PMO and Planning)
81.   Dr. N.K. Sahu, PS to Minister for Tribal Affairs, Ministry of Tribal Affairs
82.   Shri Balram Solanki, APS, Planning Commission
83.   Ms. Moushumi Basu, Society for Development Studies
84.   Shri R. K. Parmar, Under Secretary, National Commission on Population
85.   Shri Ajay Pandey, Consultant, National Commission on Population
86.   Shri C. S. Mishra, Research Officer, National Commission on Population