Fertility Rate declined to 2.2 live births per woman, 17 SDGs to be achieved by 2030: Union Health Secretary

61st convocation of International Institute for Population Sciences held There is a need to recreate national interest, especially in studies working on population studies and demography; there is a need to adopt real-time evaluation system. This was stated by the Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, Dr. Rajiv Kumar, during his convocation address as the Chief Guest at the 61st convocation of the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, held at the institute campus today.

Congratulating the graduating students and the medal-winners, Dr. Kumar explained that NITI Aayog was created as a think tank that works on public policy. He spoke of the institutions role in development and monitoring of government programmes, and in policy reform and implementation. He said that declining female labour force participation and migration of labour force are important issues which need policy intervention.

The convocation was presided over by Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ms. Preeti Sudan. Addressing the gathering, she said that the total fertility rate has declined to 2.2 live births per woman, as per NFHS-4 (2015-16), the latest in the survey series. She added that we however have to strive hard to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Among these, the Secretary stated that five goals are very crucial for addressing demographic and health challenges; she said that these are No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Quality Education, Gender Equality and Clean Water and Sanitation. She further said that such challenges cannot be tackled without integrating the field of population studies into developmental policy. She added that population aging and migration are also critical issues in development.

The Secretary spoke of the achievements in reduction of fertility and mortality rates and in achieving population stabilization and increase of average life expectancy. Ms. Sudan said that the recently launched National Health Protection scheme aims to cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families, providing benefits to approximately 50 crore people.

In total, 239 students have been awarded degrees/diplomas in the convocation ceremony today. Excellence in research and academic work of students was appreciated, and they were awarded gold and silver medals for their achievements.

BackgrounderIIPS was established in 1956, jointly by the United Nations, the Government of India and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, to serve as a regional centre for teaching, training and conducting research in the area of population studies in the ESCAP region. During the past year, 147 research papers were published in refereed journals based on the research work of the faculty members of the institute. Moreover, 136 research papers were presented at various national and international conferences during the year.