Himachal Pradesh’s early exuberance over 12.81 per cent decline in the population growth rate, especially in the urban towns like Shimla reflected in the 2011 census data is, turning out to be a warning signal for the hill state, where more and more men and women are becoming infertile.

The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in Himachal Pradesh has dipped down to 1.3 in urban towns as compared to 2.6 in India even as some of the states such as Bihar have TFR as high as 4 in its rural areas.

State’s principal secretary (health) PC Dhiman admits as much. “Though we have overall 1.9 TFR in the state but (that is basically because) a lot of families in the urban areas are either voluntarily not going in for children, or are faced with infertility problem. This is an area of serious concern,” Dhiman said.

He also admitted the need for immediate intervention by the health department and also stepping-up the measures like counselling and treatment of the women unable to bear children, or men facing infertility problems.

“There is a proposal to set up a fertility clinic at Indira Gandhi Medical College ( IGMC) Hospital and to be followed by similar measures at different levels,” he said.

The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) project director Rakesh Kanwar, however, said that no specific studies have been done to find out the reasons behind the infertility problem. “This would mainly be because of changing lifestyles, late marriage and even voluntary decisions,” Kanwar said, adding that on the positive side, the state has checked the infant and maternal mortality rates.

Doctors, meanwhile, concede that lots of people have been turning up at hospitals turning up at hospitals with complaints of infertility. Women are more forthcoming than men.

“This is happening and we have been providing treatment called Intravenous-to-Infertility. The results are very encouraging. This is one step before the test tube baby technology, which is yet to be introduced at the government hospitals,” said Dr Santosh Minhas, head of the gynaecology department at IGMC.

As per the census, the urban population has grown by 15.64 per cent, compared to the overall growth of 12.81 per cent, in the last decade. Three districts that have witnessed a decline in the rural population include Lahaul-Spiti (from 7.16 per cent to -5.10 per cent), Kinnaur (9.91 per cent to 7.16 per cent) and Shimla (13.03 to 10.20 per cent).

As per the latest figures circulated to the states by Registrar General of India, Himachal Pradesh’s urban TFR is almost equal to West Bengal. However, Himachal’s rural TFR is lower than those of states such as Jharkhand and Rajasthan.

Balbir Tegta, director, Census, said: “The census department is not directly involved in collecting exact data on the infertility but chief medical officers in the districts are supposed to provide the record of couples having one child or no child to the Registrar General of India (RGI).

As per the RGI list, seven states, including Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab and Sikkim, are no longer contributing to the population explosion of India.