National Population Policy 2000 - FUNDING, PROMOTIONAL AND MOTIVATIONAL MEASURES FOR ADOPTION OF THE SMALL FAMILY NORM

  FUNDING
 

The programmes, projects and schemes premised on the goals and objectives of the NPP 2000, and indeed all efforts at population stabilisation, will be adequately funded in view of their critical importance to national development. Preventive and promotive services such as ante-natal and post-natal care for women, immunisation for children, and contraception will continue to be subsidised for all those who need the services. Priority in allocation of funds will be given to improving health care infrastructure at the community and primary health centres, subcentre and village levels. Critical gaps in manpower will be remedied through redeployment, particularly in under-served and inaccessible areas, and referral linkages will be improved. In order to implement immediately the Action Plan, it would be necessary to double the annual budget of the Department of Family Welfare to enable government to address the shortfall in unmet needs for health care infrastructure, services and supplies (in Appendix IV).

Even though the annual budget for population stabilisation activities assigned to the Department of Family Welfare has increased over the years, at least 50 percent of the budgetary outlay is deployed towards non-plan activities (recurring expenditures for maintenance of health care infrastructure in the states and UTs, and towards salaries). To illustrate, of the annual budget of Rs. 2920 crores for 1999-2000, nearly Rs 1500 crores is allocated towards non-plan activities. Only the remaining 50 percent becomes available for genuine plan activities, including procurement of supplies and equipment. For these reasons, since 1980 the Department of Family Welfare has been unable to revise norms of operational costs of health infrastructure, which in turn has impacted directly the quality of care and outreach of services provided.
  PROMOTIONAL AND MOTIVATIONAL MEASURES FOR ADOPTION OF THE SMALL FAMILY NORM
 

The following promotional and motivational measures will be undertaken:

(i) Panchayats and Zila Parishads will be rewarded and honoured for exemplary performance in universalising the small family norm, achieving reductions in infant mortality and birth rates, and promoting literacy with completion of primary schooling.

(ii) The Balika Samridhi Yojana run by the Department of Women and Child Development, to promote survival and care of the girl child, will continue. A cash incentive of Rs. 500 is awarded at the birth of the girl child of birth order 1 or 2.

(iii) Maternity Benefit Scheme run by the Department of Rural Development will continue. A cash incentive of Rs. 500 is awarded to mothers who have their first child after 19 years of age, for birth of the first or second child only. Disbursement of the cash award will in future be linked to compliance with ante-natal check up, institutional delivery by trained birth attendant, registration of birth and BCG immunisation.

(iv) A Family Welfare-linked Health Insurance Plan will be established. Couples below the poverty line, who undergo sterilisation with not more than two living children, would become eligible (along with children) for health insurance (for hospitalisation) not exceeding Rs. 5000, and a personal accident insurance cover for the spouse undergoing sterilisation.

(v) Couples below the poverty line, who marry after the legal age of marriage, register the marriage, have their first child after the mother reaches the age of 21, accept the small family norm, and adopt a terminal method after the birth of the second child, will be rewarded.

(vi) A revolving fund will be set up for income-generating activities by village-level self help groups, who provide community-level health care services.

(vii) Crèches and child care centres will be opened in rural areas and urban slums. This will facilitate and promote participation of women in paid employment.

(viii) A wider, affordable choice of contraceptives will be made accessible at diverse delivery points, with counseling services to enable acceptors to exercise voluntary and informed consent.

(ix) Facilities for safe abortion will be strengthened and expanded.

(x) Products and services will be made affordable through innovative social marketing schemes.

(xi) Local entrepreneurs at village levels will be provided soft loans and encouraged to run ambulance services to supplement the existing arrangements for referral transportation.

(xii) Increased vocational training schemes for girls, leading to self-employment will be encouraged.

(xiii) Strict enforcement of Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1976.

(xiv) Strict enforcement of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994.

(xv) Soft loans to ensure mobility of the ANMs will be increased.

(xvi) The 42nd Constitutional Amendment has frozen the number of representatives in the Lok Sabha (on the basis of population) at 1971 Census levels. The freeze is currently valid until 2001, and has served as an incentive for State Governments to fearlessly pursue the agenda for population stabilisation. This freeze needs to be extended until 2026.