JAIPUR: The two major political parties in Rajasthan, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress, have agreed to work for a consensus on the issues of population control and development. The political parties and the legislators should highlight the importance of population stabilisation and the Rajasthan Assembly should discuss the population issue at least once in a year, the two parties have resolved.

The State presidents of the BJP and the Congress, Mahesh Sharma and B. D. Kalla respectively, were made to converge in their opinion recently by the Forum for Population Action (FPA), an advisory group on population stabilisation, headed by former State Chief Secretary M. L. Mehta.

A brainstorming session organised at the Pant Krishi Bhawan conference hall was presided over by Assembly Speaker Sumitra Singh. A good number of legislators belonging to the Congress and the BJP participated. There was unanimity in identification of the problem areas— high level of infant mortality, mother mortality, and desire for a boy child, early marriages, low social status of women and unmet demand for birth control methods— and the remedies.

"The rapid growth in the population of Rajasthan is a cause for concern. The efforts made in the past decade, including the formulation of a population policy and disincentives like two-child norms in panchayati raj institutions and local self government bodies, have not shown the desired results in controlling the population," Mr. Mehta told the political leaders.

Rajasthan is in an unenviable position when it comes to population growth as it has been among the States with highest growth rate for the past five decades. A sparsely populated State which accounted for 4.9 per cent of the country's population in 1951, Rajasthan now has a 5.5 per cent share -- which in absolute terms means 5.65 crore people.

Perhaps there is another way to look at it. Back in 1901 the density of population in Rajasthan was 33 persons per sq km, which now is 165 persons per sq km. From 100 persons per sq km in 1981 it reached 129 persons per sq in the 1991 Census. When the State had 26.2 lakh persons between the ages of 20-24 years in 1961, in 2001 their number was 47.2 lakh. By 2011 they will be 74.3 lakh and the number of persons completing the year 21 then will be a huge 14.9 lakhs.

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