Giving this information in the Lok Sabha the Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare, Mrs Panabaaka Lakshmi, said better performing 15 States/UTs, which constitute about 44 per cent of the population in 2001, have already achieved the replacement level TFR of 2.1.  Ten states, which constitute about 14 per cent of the population, are hopeful of achieving the replacement level in the near future as they have attained TFR between 2.4 and 2.9 by 2010.  Remaining States/UTs namely, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura and Dadra & Nagar Haveli, which constitute about 42 per cent of the total population, may take longer period to achieve this goal.

India was the first country globally in 1952 to launch Family Planning programme, emphasizing fertility regulation for reducing birth rates to stabilize the population at a level consistent with the requirement of national economy.  During the seventies, the family planning programme was focused mainly on terminal methods and the programme received a set back due to the rigid implementation of a target based approach.

Since April 1, 1996, the `Target Free Approach' has been adopted all over India with a focus on decentralized participatory planning.  Under this new approach, attention is being paid to enlarging family welfare services and ensuring community participation at the grass-root level.  The family welfare programme is now fully voluntary and the main effort of the Government has been to provide service and to encourage the citizens by information, education and communication to use such services.  It gives choice to the couple to adopt the size of their family by adopting the family welfare methods best suited to them.