UP Minister expresses concern on 'World Population Day' eve

Lucknow, Jul 10 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh, the sixth most populated state in the world, was yet to achieve any major goal to contain the fertility rate and the population growth leading to major crunch in resources and other basic facilities for the masses.

On the eve of the 'World Population Day,' UP Health Minister Anant Kumar Mishra said that awareness among the masses particularly females were required to control the population. ''If population would keep of rising at such a high speed then all the development work would go waste and the masses would feel scarcity of the basic ammenities,'' he said.

Talking to mediapersons, Mr Mishra said the Total fertility Rate (TFR) in the state as per the government statistic of 2005-06 was 3.82 per cent, whereas the country's average was only 2.68 per cent.

Similarly, the crude birth rate of UP was 23.5 per cent against the national average of 18.8, the Minister added.

Mr Mishra said there was an urgent need for creating awareness among the people that high TFR would mean high risk of pregnancies leading to increase in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality rate (MMR).

''Low literacy among the women, minimum use of contraceptive to have a minimum gap of three years between two children and the desire to have sons were some of the reasons for higher population growth rate,'' he added.

Meanwhile, the Minister admitted that the progress of the UP Population Policy 2000 was yet to be assessed, but efforts were on to check the population growth.

UNI MB JAS AM AS1857