By IANS,
Kolkata : Pronab Sen, chief statistician and secretary in the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, Friday stressed the need to review the present population policy keeping in view the recent fall in population growth.
“Population growth has come down to 1.63 percent from more than 2 percent. We have seen consequences of zero population growth in countries like Japan. It is important to maintain a certain amount of population growth to maintain some stability,” Sen said.
“Negative population growth is bad,” he said at a seminar organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce.
Talking about the social sector, Sen said the healthcare system has failed to deliver, but the education sector has done better, thanks to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for All Campaign).
He added that the banking sector was trying to widen its presence in the rural sector, “but with little success”.
Sen further emphasised on upgrading quality of public schools.
Citing an example, the statistician said Uttar Pradesh has given up its role in secondary education completely. “We need to have much more vehement discussions on public education”.
He expressed his concern over the high infant mortality rate in the country. The present rate in India is 56:1000, while in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries the rate is 15:1000.
In Kerala, the rate is 17:1000.
OECD is a Paris-based grouping of 30 rich industrial countries.