About PFI
Population Foundation of India (PFI) is at the forefront of policy advocacy and research on population issues in the country.
The institution was initially called the Family Planning Foundation. It got its present name in 1993. The foundation aimed to supplement and complement the government’s efforts and galvanize voluntary action to support activities that address population issues and concerns in India.
Our evolution
Early in the 1970s, the foundation sought to promote, through research and demonstration projects, family planning among needy couples to usher in the small family norm in the country.
By the 1980s, its focus expanded to promote, again through action research, family planning as a necessary and integral part of maternal and child care. The foundation included in its mandate population stabilization strategies that took into account other aspects of health and development believed to influence fertility behaviour.
In the 1990s, following the Programme of Action agreed to at the International Conference on Population and Development, and deliberations by PFI’s in-house experts including a symposium on Family Planning, the foundation started to look at population stabilization from a much larger perspective. Its strategies to moderate population growth began including social development and mobilization.
Currently, PFI implements its activities within a wider canvas of population stabilization and sustainable development with a gender-sensitive and rights-based approach.
PFI today
PFI collaborates with central, state and local government institutions for effective policy formulation and planning. It supports governmental and non-governmental organisations in programmes that focus on Reproductive and Child Health (RCH), Family Planning, Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health (ARSH), HIV/AIDS and Urban Health. The foundation also works with corporate organizations as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in above mentioned areas that have a significant bearing on India’s future.
PFI reaches out to the underserved and the unserved areas in 20 states, with a special focus on the eight Empowered Action Group (EAG) states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Though women, adolescents and children are its primary target groups, it sees male involvement and engagement with gatekeepers and community institutions as an integral component of its work.
PFI is headquartered in New Delhi with offices in 14 states. PFI has a staff of over 100 professionals and works with over 40 NGO partners.
