The government on Wednesday said the high rate of population growth, particularly in States like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, was a matter of “serious concern” as it had an adverse impact on the available national resources.

Moving a motion in the Lok Sabha on population stabilisation in the country, Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in central Indian states, including Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, was almost double that of the desired levels. The TFR is calculated as the average number of children of a couple in their life time.

Mr. Azad said the TFR in these States stood at an average of 3.8, which was virtually close to twice the desired rate of 2.1, and called for an immediate reversal of the trend.

“We talk about rising costs of essential commodities, inflation....all these are a direct result of increasing population and limited availability of resources in the country,” he said.

Mr. Azad said the Population Stabilisation Policy was introduced in 2000 under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajyapee and under which the government had set a target of achieving 2.1 TFR before 2010. It was estimated that if this rate of TFR was achieved in the first decade, the population of the country would stabilise by 2045.

However, only Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Sikkim, Chandigarh, Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar Islands could achieve this TFR, he said. Three states that had slightly higher TFR between 2.8 and 3 were Manipur, Mizoram and Jammu and Kashmir.

“Central India is a matter of serious concern for us. We need to change this trend. There has been no change in the TFR there and it is unfortunate,” he said.

Mr. Azad said India had only 2.4 per cent of land mass of the world, but accounted for 17 per cent of the world population. “The population is still growing, but our resources are decreasing,” he added.

“Maintaining TFR is not the responsibility of the Health Ministry alone, but that of every individual and government,” he said.