Issues Arising Out of the Health Policy and National Population Policy for Control of Population

Abstract

The National policy of Health and the National Population Policy of the country focuses on issues that are critical and falls under priority concern for programme intervention. The recognition of any issue in the national policy of the country bestows it the seal of universal acceptance and stamp of priority. It automatically becomes an actionable item in work programme. Additionally, issue based policy pre-empts cloud of confusion that very often surfaces during the programme implementation stages. In so far as the Health policy is concerned, it basically aims at achieving specific health care goals within a society. With this broad objective, the first National Health Policy (NHP) of the country was adopted in 1983 and was subsequently revised in 2002. The Government of India is now in the process of finalising the National Health Policy, 2015. The National Health Policy looks the population control issues from the prism of family planning and specially those linked to reproductive health care services while the National Population Policy addresses broader issues linked with control of population. The highlights of issues as addressed by the Health Policy and National Population Policy of the country have been captured here.