Seminar on 'Population Environment and Development

Dehra Dun, Mar 17 (UNI) A two-day national seminar on 'Population, Environment and Development in Uttarakhand' is being hosted by the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, here.

Inaugurating the seminar, Governor B L Joshi said it was a privilege that the state was chosen for a discussion by the institute this year and ''research on a number of themes related to population and health in the state would help sensitise researchers and policy makers about several priority areas and reflect on new directions for future research strategies''.

He said as far as development was concerned, Uttarakhand fared better than other states in the country, but still had a long way to go.

He laid stress on ''quality intervention and sustainable development as well as augmentation of human and financial resources'' for the state's development.

''The government has been focusing on Panchayati Raj institutions, primary health care and education. Health care should reach people in the remote areas and efforts should be made to encourage them in health and family welfare'', he said.

The seminar threw light on the need for sustained efforts to educate people about their health rights and improve the quality of health delivery systems. In all, the issues of health, population, development and environment are closely interrelated, it was observed.

The topics of research varied from Reproductive Health, Public Health, Migration and Urbanisation, to Education. The statistics and key findings were carried out by the National Health Survey (NHFS-3) whereas field work for the state was conducted by TALEEM Research Foundation, Ahmedabad.

On the subject of migration, the survey pointed out that one of the main reasons for females migrating to the state was marriage (66.07 per cent), whereas 37.91 per cent of males migrated to the state for employment.

In statistics for out-migration to different states, 33.84 per cent migrated to Uttar Pradesh while 3.07 per cent were shifting to Delhi.

Those participating in the seminar included Health Minister Ramesh Pokheryal Nishank, ADG, MoHFW, S K Das, Director IIPS Prof S Lahiri, Principle Secretary, Health Keshav Desiraju, and IIPS coordinator Prof S Parasuraman.

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