A critical analysis of prioritizing strategies of demographic achievement of West Bengal compare to national level through the assessment in the light of NPP 2000

West Bengal is highly populated plain state located in the eastern part of the India. As a population policy, The National Population Policy, 2000 (NPP 2000) affirms the commitment of government towards voluntary and informed choice and consent of citizens while availing of reproductive health care services, and continuation of the target free approach in administering family planning services.

This paper tries to highlight the demographic scenario in the light of NPP-2000 and suggest some of the strategies for speedy achievement of the objectives of NPP2000 for the state.

Data have been collected from Census, NFSH, DLHS, and SRS etc., and then tabulated and interpreted.

The state has CBR of 20.97 which is merely equal to aim of NPP and IMR of 33 of the state is little higher than NPP target of 30 but better than national value. TFR of the state is 1.9 (SRS, 2009) which is already below national value and the target of NPP goal which is 2.1. Institutional delivery improved progressively to 49% (2009), whereas NPP-2000 tries to achieve 80 percent of institutional delivery by 2010. Maternal mortality ratio of the state is 145 per lakh live births, which is still pretty above the NPP target.

The existing data shows that West Bengal stands slightly above and better in terms of few national demographic achievement, whereas it stands below in some other aspects. Further, the present demographic status indicates that it is still a long way to achieve some set goals of NPP 2000.

In some demographic scenario West Bengal reflects good performance than national level.To achieve the set goals, there is needed to improve the existing health infrastructure