The Government of India started a comprehensive Family Planning Programme in 1952 in order to improve the health and welfare of the people.
The National Population Policy was formulated in 2000 with the following aims:
- To formulate policies for imparting free and compulsory education to children up to 14 years of age.
- To make policies to reduce infant mortality rates.
- To undertake programmes to achieve the universal immunisation of children in India.
- To promote delayed marriage for girls
- To stress on the improvement of lives of adolescents by protecting them from unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
- To provide adolescents with proper food supplements.