In memory of its founder Chairman, the late Mr JRD Tata, the Foundation has introduced national level awards in the year 1997 for the best performing state and districts, which have done well in the field of Reproductive and Child Health programmes.

A high level Awards Committee was constituted to go into the issue in depth and set standards and ground rules for the Awards. The Awards Committee decides the selection criteria for finalising the awards.

The award for the best performing state is a rolling trophy and a cash award of Rs.10 lakhs, and for the best performing districts is a rolling shield and a cash award of Rs. 2 lakhs. The awards are given after every two years.

Population Foundation of India organized a function to give away the third JRD Tata Awards for excellence in Population and Reproductive Child Health Programmes on November 7, 2003 at PHD House, New Delhi.

The Hon’ble Vice President of India, Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who was the chief guest at the function, gave away the Awards to the best State and Districts. Himachal Pradesh was adjudged as the best performing State in Population and Reproductive and Child Health for the year 2002. Award for the best district in the large population category (more than 3.0 million) went to West Godavari in Andhra Pradesh while Churu district of Rajasthan and Lahul & Spiti of Himachal Pradesh bagged the awards in the medium population category (1.8 to 3.0 million) and small population category (less than 1.8 million) respectively.

Awards for the best districts on RCH programmes in the not-so-good performing states were given to Ri Bhoi in Meghalaya, Ranchi in Jharkhand and Bhagalpur in Bihar.

The Award for the State contained a rolling trophy, cash of Rs.10 lakhs and a certificate. The Award for the Districts contained a rolling shield, cash of Rs.2 lakhs and a certificate.

The function was also attended by Ms Chandresh Kumari, Hon’ble Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh. Mr A R Nanda, Executive Director, PFI, in his welcome speech thanked the august gathering and briefed them about the institution of JRD Tata Award.

Dr Bharat Ram, Chairman, PFI, in his speech mentioned that a very high level Committee was constituted to look into the issue in depth and set standards and ground rules for the Awards.

Ms Justice Leila Seth, Chairperson-Awards Committee explained the participants about the selection strategy followed to judge the best state and districts for the award. She listed out the sixteen indicators which were used in the selection process of the best performing state and districts for presentation of JRD Tata Awards 2002. She further said that these sixteen indicators covered a wide range parameters like fertility, mortality, educational levels, maternal care and government expenditure on the social sector and in short they capture the processes and achievements in human development and population stabilisation.

The recipients of the Awards were –

Ms Chandresh Kumari, Hon’ble Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh received the Award for the State Himachal Pradesh.

The Award for West Godavari District (Andhra Pradesh) was received jointly by Mr Sanjay Jaju, Collector & District Magistrate and Mr K Jayaraju, Chairman – Zilla Parishad, West Godavari District.

For Churu District (Rajasthan), the Award was received by Mr R Venkateswaran, IAS, District Collector, Churu and Mr Ram Dev Singh Dhaka, Zilla Pramukh, Zilla Parishad, Churu.

The Award for Lahaul & Spiti district was received jointly by Ms Chandresh Kumari, Health Minister, Himachal Pradesh and Mr P C Kapoor, Secretary – Health, Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Himachal Pradesh.

The Award for Ri Bhoi was received by Mr W L Lyngdoh, IAS, Deputy Commissioner (Ri Bhoi).

For Ranchi the Award was received by Dr Pradeep Kumar, IAS, Deputy Commissioner, Ranchi.

The Award for Bhagalpur was jointly received by Mr A K Chauhan, IAS, Commissioner (Bhagalpur) and Mr Shambhu Dayal Khaitan, Chairman, Zilla Parishad, Bhagalpur.
Ms Chandresh Kumari, addressing the function, pointed out that though Himachal Pradesh lacks in various socio-economic indicators, the women’s literacy level has considerably increased in the recent past.

The Hon’ble Vice-President of India in his speech said that though some states are doing well in checking population, a large number are lagging behind in the areas of population and development. He further said that our country has the potential to make much faster and more effective progress towards human development indicators such as literacy and education, reduction of infant mortality and maternal mortality etc. However, the progress has been very uneven across the states and regions, he added. The areas, which are lagging behind, have to come up faster. While encouraging the efforts of PFI, he said that the governmental efforts are not sufficient to deal with these issues and more and more social organisations have to come forward. He also appreciated the Award Committee members, Technical group members for their contribution in the selection process of the state/districts for awards.

Prof. Ranjit Roy Chaudhury, Member, Governing Board, PFI thanked the Hon’ble Vice President and other participants for lending their valuable time.