Patna University’s Population Research Centre remains neglected

PATNA: The Population Research Centre (PRC) of Patna University (PU), which was once supposed to be one of the most “active” institutions on the campus, remains neglected. And, that too, when both Union health minister Jagat Prakash Nadda and his junior Ashwini Kumar Choubey happen to be the alumni of PU and the PRC is sponsored by the Union ministry of health and family welfare.
Established as ‘Demographic Research Centre’ in PU statistics department in September 1966 by the Union ministry of health and family welfare, PRC has got 23 sanctioned posts of technical and non-technical staff.The head of PU statistics department happens to be its ex officio director and the Union ministry provides 100% financial assistance to the centre in the form of grant-in-aid. However, it is having only one assistant director and four technical staff. For reasons best known to the ministry alone, no fresh appointment has been made against any vacant post for the last seven years, greatly hampering the centre’s activities.
PRC assistant director Dilip Kumar pointed out that PU vice-chancellor Rash Bihari Prasad Singh has written to the Union ministry on at least two occasions in the past for allowing him to fill up all the vacant posts at the centre, but the ministry has reportedly turned a deaf ear to his request. The VC is also contemplating to start a full-time course on population studies at the centre with the help of research staff available.
He further pointed out that the members of the Third Party Review Committee constituted by the ministry to assess the current situation prevailing at all the 18 PRCs in the country visited PU in April this year and thoroughly inspected its working. The committee has reportedly recommended immediate appointment on all vacant posts to strengthen the working of the PRC. Earlier, in 2017, too, the P M Kulkarni report had recommended filling up of all vacant posts in order to boost demographic studies. But, nothing concrete has emerged so far, he said.
The main objective of the PRC was to conduct research on demographic, social and economic aspects of the population, especially of Bihar. In fact, the investigations carried out by the PRC aim at assessing the impact of various factors having bearing on family welfare programmes which, in turn, provide feedback to strengthen their implementation.
The progress of research made by the PRC is communicated to the ministry through quarterly reports. So far more than 300 reports and research papers on different aspects of population have been produced by PRC.
Apart from completing the assignments of the ministry, the PRC has also carried out several studies of the USAID, the Population Council, New York, UNICEF, Care India, among others, Kumar added.