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INTRODUCTION
As mentioned earlier, India entered the second stage of demographic transition around 1921 after which its population started growing at the rate of more than 1 percent a year. Nehru wrote extensively on the falling birth and death rates in the West in Discovery of India and was a strong supporter of the family planning programme. National Planning Committee of the Indian National Congress supported promotion of family planning as a state policy strongly. This explains how after independence, the Government of India recognized the vital role of population control in the overall development of national economy and in 1952 India became the first country of the world to launch an official family planning programme. Unrestricted population growth was viewed as a serious threat to all national developmental efforts. Over the years the planners have followed different approaches towards promoting family planning among the masses. These approaches are broadly grouped into Gandhian approach, clinical approach, extension approach, cafeteria approach, coercion and rights based approach. While we started cautiously with Gandhian approach, after various experiments in this area, we have settled with a demand driven, rights based approach in which greater role is assigned to education, empowerment and meeting the unmet needs rather than attaining family planning targets This module presents the three major policy statements issued by successive governments: a statement by Dr. Karan Singh in 1976, a statement by Janata party government in 1977, and the National Population Policy 2000 statement.
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