Review and Revision of Population Policy of Uttar Pradesh

The present UP Population Policy was formulated in 2000 and runs till 2016. The need to review it had been felt as it was adopted when the state included the region now part of Uttarakhand, and a mid-term review showed that many of the set targets on maternal and child heath, delaying age of marriage and meeting the unmet need for adoption of contraceptive methods could not be achieved. However, in the sphere of antenatal care coverage and institutional deliveries the state had performed better than the targets that had been set. Department of Family Welfare, UP, SIFPSA and PFI are taking the lead in the review and revision of the population policy. The government has set up core committee under the chairmanship of Executive Director, SIFPSA and review committee under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary, UP. Senior officers from the department of health and family welfare, National Health Mission, leading organizations working in the area of Population, stakeholder departments are members of both committees. The drafting group will write the revised Population Policy of Uttar Pradesh after the State level consultation under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary, GoUP scheduled in the month of June 2015.

As part of process, the four venues for the regional consultations were identified as Allahabad, Agra, Gorakhpur and Moradabad.

The workshops were facilitated by Mr B K Jain, General Manager, R & E, SIFPSA and Dr Sanjay Pandey, Program Director, Population Foundation of India. Dr Meenu Sagar, Director Family Welfare discussed the National Population Policy and the current Uttar Pradesh Population Policy outlining the need for amendments, and the desirability of linking family welfare with child health, and the availability of facilities required to deliver services. A report on district wise analysis of the current status of the indicators in all districts in the region was also shared.

SIFPSA has completed the study on "Barriers in adoption of family planning methods" with its own resources and SIFPSA has entrusted Population Research Centre, Lucknow to carry out study on "Out of pocket expenditure for health seeking behaviors in UP".PFI has completed two studies on "Budget Analysis of the FP program in UP" and "Policy review against the family planning program in the state to see the linkages". All these studies will help drafting group at the time of writing of revised Population Policy.

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