Population Research Centre:
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has established the network of 18 Population Research Centres (PRCs) spread over 16 major States of India, with the mandate to provide critical research-based inputs related to the Health and Family Welfare Programs and Policies at the National and State levels. Initially, these centres were known as Demographic Research Centres and were later on, renamed as Population Research Centres. PRCs are administratively under the control of their respective host University/Institutions.
PRCs were established to undertake research projects related to family planning, reproductive and child health, demographic research, population & development linkages, qualitative& quantitative aspects of population control, with a view to optimize the feedback from these research studies for strategies, formulation, implementation, and modifications of on-going schemes. In addition to the regular regional/state specific research
Population Research Centre at The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, known as PRC, Vadodara, came into existence on 1 July 1967. The Centre, from its inception, has been sponsored and financed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India. PRC, Vadodara is one of the 9 fully developed PRCs, out of the eighteen PRCs established by the Government of India.
PRC, Vadodara is primarily engaged in undertaking large scale survey research in health, family planning, fertility, mortality and other related issues. PRC, Vadodara also carries out evaluative studies of the National Health and Family Welfare Programmes. The studies are intended to provide valuable inputs to the policy makers of the central and state Government. With a multi-disciplinary staff structure comprising demographers, statisticians, economists and social scientists, the Centre also undertakes need-based teaching on Demography and Population Studies for students at the request of various departments of the University. PRC is also engaged in monitoring of Programme Implementation Plan of Gujarat State since 2012-13 as one of the core activities. The other significant core activity is monitoring of Health Management Information System (HMIS) portal data which is a single source of micro level health data. The Centre has made major strides in widening the scope of its activities and getting recognition both at the national as well as international level.
During its tenure of more than 50 years, the Centre has gained wide experience through its research activities by undertaking special studies on problems related to population and its planning at the request of Govt. of India, Govt. of Gujarat, ICMR, Family Planning Foundation, Family Planning Association of India and donor agencies like Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, USAID, WHO, IDRC-Canada, Population Council, and UNICEF-Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, NHSRC, New Delhi, NGOs like SEWA RURAL, Dipak Charitable Trust etc. It has undertaken more than hundred research projects and its staff members have prepared more than 300 research reports including research papers. Five books have already been published, based on the work undertaken by the center.