The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act was passed in 1922 on the basis of the recommendations made by the B.Shantilal Shah committee. An event of great significance is the declaration by the United Nations of 1974 as the World Population Year and the United Nations World Population Conference at Bucharest , Romania. The major theme that emerged from the Bucharest meeting was that population policy and programme must be pursued in the context of development and that population growth and development were integrated. This idea was reflected in the National Population Policy of India [1976], whose important components were: