Report of the Working Group on Population Policy

The government of India’s Planning Commission appointed the Working Group on Population Policy on October 20, 1978, with Dr. V.A. Pai Panandiker (then, director at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi) as its chairperson.The Working Group was formed to study the ‘demographic situation’ in India and suggest a programme to lower the fertility rate; to examine the social, economic and environmental variables related to fertility control and family welfare; and to suggest ways to integrate schemes run by various ministries and state governments to make the fertility control programme more effective. The Report of the Working Group on Population Policy was released in May 1980.The report’s 12 chapters include an introduction (Chapter 1) and discuss the Working Group’s approach to population policies (Chapter 2), India’s short- and long-term demographic goals (Chapter 3-5), an institutional framework for linkages between fertility control and other developmental programmes (Chapters 6 and 7), the infrastructure for population control in India (Chapter 8), incentives for state governments to implement family welfare programmes (Chapter 9), contraceptive technology and biomedical research (Chapter 10), socio-economic information and research for population control policies (Chapter 11) and the Working Group’s conclusions (Chapter 12).