Population Policy

What is a Policy?
4 Set of Ideas or Plans that is used as a
basis for decision making;
4 Attitude and actions of an organization
regarding a particular issue;
4 General Statement of understanding
which guide decision making.
Basis for Policy
4 Set of Values
4 Commitments
4 Assessment of current situation
4 Image of a desired future situation.
What is a Policy
4 It is more than mere statement of
goals:
4 How the stated goals can be achieved?
4 Who will carry out the tasks?
4 In what manner?
Four stages of Policy Process
4 Problem Identification and Issue
Recognition
4 Policy Formulation
4 Policy Implementation
4 Policy Evaluation
Policies related to Health Sector
4 National Health Policy
4 Nutrition Policy
4 Women Policy
4 Training Policy
4 Population Policy
Types of Population Policies
4 Explicit : Document by a national
government announcing its intention to
affect the population growth and
composition

4 Implicit : Directives not necessarily issued

to influence the population growth and
composition but may have the effect of
doing so.
What is Population Policy?
4 Measures formulated by a range of social
institutions including Government which may
influence the size, distribution or composition of
human population (Driver,1972).
4 A deliberate effort by a national government to
influence the demographic variables like fertility,
mortality and migration (Organski &
Organski,1961)
4 A set of Coordinated laws aimed at reaching some
demographic goal (Biurgeois-Pichat,1974)
Process of Population
Policymaking
4 Developing the Constituency in favor of
Population Policy
4 Identifying the arguments favoring population
policy
4 Addressing the issues to a right place
4 Visualizing the form a policy should take
4 Recognizing the most advantageous time
Population growth is
determined by fertility rates
4 The number of children per adult and also
fatality rates.
4 Often economic growth and economic
development have led to a decline in
population growth, but there are no hard
and fast rules and other factors,
4 such as availability of family planning, social
expectations and government intervention
can play an important role.
Welfare payments/State
pensions
4 A generous state pension scheme means
couples don’t need to have children to
provide an effective retirement support
when they are old.
4 Family sizes in developing countries are
higher because children are viewed as
‘insurance’ to look after them in old age.
4 In modern societies, this is not necessary
and birth rates fall as a result.
Availability of family
planning.
4 Increased availability of
contraception can enable women to
limit family size closer to the desired
level. In the developing world,
availability of contraception is more
limited, and this can lead to unplanned
pregnancies and more rapid population
growth.
4 The death rate is influenced by
nutrition, housing conditions, medical
care, and lifestyles, working
conditions, involvement or non-
involvement in military action.
Immigrants & Emigrants
4 Net immigration occurs when more people
come into the country to live (immigrants)
than people who leave it to live elsewhere
(emigrants).
4 The rate and pattern of migration is
influenced by relative living standards at
home and abroad, persecution of particular
groups and extent of control on the
movement of people.
4 A country in which people have healthy
diets, enjoy good housing facilities and
access to high quality medical care, do not
smoke or consume excess alcohol, are not
sexually promiscuous, exercise regularly,
enjoy good working conditions, is likely to
have a relatively low death rate.