The Central Family Planning Board, set up in 1956, appointed a sub-committee on Demographic Studies under the chairmanship of Dr. V.K.R.V. Rao.

This sub-committee recommended the establishment of four demographic research centres in different parts of the country, where studies might be conducted in fertility, mortality and associated factors.

As a result, the Demographic Training and Research Centre (now known as the International Institute for Population Sciences) were established in Bombay in 1956; the Demographic Research Centres in Calcutta, Delhi and Trivandrum in 1957; and the one at Dharwar was established in 1960.

At present there are in addition to the HPS, fifteen Population Research Centres (as they are now called) in different parts of the country and four more centres have recently been sanctioned.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

The premier institute today for training and research in popula­tion studies in India is the International Institute for Population Sciences (formerly known as the Demographic Training and Re­search Centre).

This Institute has four functions, namely, teach­ing, research, consultative services and documentation. As of 1982- 83, it has trained 761 persons, out of which 465 were from India and 296 from various countries of the ESCAP region.

The contri­bution of the Institute to the development of population studies is impressive and it has carried out studies in practically every as­pect of population studies.

The Institute’s library, perhaps the best in the world, has a stock of 38073 books and 8248 reprints, and subscribes to several periodicals on population and associated field.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

The establishment of this Institute is an important landmark in the development of the field of population studies in India as well as in the world.