Context: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) recently organized a two-day orientation workshop for Population Research Centres (PRCs) to highlight various features of Health Ministry’s flagship schemes and for their concurrent monitoring.

About Population Research Centres (PRCs):

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) established a network of Population Research Centres (PRCs) with the mandate to provide, inter alia, critical research based inputs related to the Health and Family Welfare Programs and Policies at the national and state levels.
• Their main role is to undertake research projects relating to family planning, demographic research and biological studies & qualitative aspect of population control, with a view to gainfully utilize the feedback from these research studies for plan formulation, strategies and modifications of on- going schemes.

Functioning: Autonomous in their functioning, these PRCs are provided 100 per cent central assistance in the form of grant-in-aid on a year-to year basis.

• Activities of PRCs are monitored by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare through regular periodical progress reports and meeting, seminars etc. Besides, guidance is also provided by various institutions as well as committees both at State and national level constituted by the Ministry from time to time.
• Administratively, these PRCs are under the control of their host University/Institutions where they are located.
• However, as the PRCs are established as well as fully funded by the Ministry of health & family Welfare, they are governed by the guidelines issued by the Ministry from time to time.