Population control programme faltering
More than two million new people continue to be injected every year into our delta measuring 56,000 square miles. Today it is being stated that the growth rate should be kept below 1 per cent. This is not an ambitious target. Even if this target is achieved the country will have to contend with 1.5 more people every year, writes Zakeria Shirazi
Courtesy New Age 10/8/09
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RECENT projections on the country’s population have been dismal. The statistics revealed in connection with observance of World Population Day last week are appalling.
It should be noted that mere adoption of contraceptives does not guarantee birth prevention if the method is not cent per cent reliable and supplies are not uninterrupted. It is learnt that more than 7 per cent couples cannot be covered due to absence of timely supply. Herein lies the merit of permanent methods. These surgical methods are a one-time affair and do not place a lingering burden either upon the couples or fieldworkers. In whatever exists in the name of population control campaign today the permanent methods are not emphasised.
We concede of course that recently, it is learnt, the cash incentive for permanent acceptors has been raised from Tk 300 to 1,000. Cash can help but it is no substitute for the inner urge that a potential acceptor should be made to feel – motivation, to use a favourite word of family planning campaigners. At present, we are told, 55.8 per cent eligible couples have accepted family planning. And since acceptance of a temporary method entails a continuous practice with many pitfalls, we are unable to tell how far even this modest figure is reliable. We can presume that the 42 per cent who are left out happen to be the poorest and the most underprivileged sections, that is, the most fecund sections. And male participation is deplorably low, only 5.2 per cent.
A recent study by the National Institute for Population Research and Training as reported in the media has come out with some disturbing facts. A child is born every 11 seconds and during the year 2007 nearly three million children were born. At this rate the country’s population will reach 300 million by the year 2060. To avert this Doom’s Day prophesy is a serious challenge before the nation.
Field work is very inadequate and a study showed that 17 per cent intending women are unable to gain access to any FP method. This calls for strengthening field service. While there is manpower shortage, supplies also run out. Procurement of FP devices is a tardy procedure and may take up to two years. Thus many aspects of family planning department need to be streamlined. This is evidence that family planning sector did not so far receive from the government the priority it deserved.
In a euphoric mood one can cite one evidences of success: total fertility rate (TFR) has been brought down. True, at the time of liberation the growth rate of population was 3 per cent and TFR more than 5; today the TFR is 2.7 and growth rate is 1.6 per cent. The euphoria will disappear when we visualise the situation in three-dimensional terms. More than two million new people continue to be injected every year into our delta measuring 56,000 square miles. Today it is being stated that the growth rate should be kept below 1 per cent. This is not an ambitious target. Even if this target is achieved the country will have to contend with 1.5 more people every year. And it should be noted that as the population is continuously growing, today’s 1 per cent will not be numerically the same as the 1per cent ten years hence.
One reason for the setback in population control programme may be early marriage of girls. Fourteen-year-old girls are passed off for mature and marriageable brides and the kazis do nothing to verify their age or to demand ID card. The kazis must be made accountable. Sixty per cent women give birth to their first child before they are 20.
Few perhaps remember today that population was once declared the number one problem of the country. Somehow that slogan is now forgotten and some want it in place today. The mass media is not much in use today. Is awareness complete? The mass media also serves to wear down over time any subconscious resistance. Moreover mass media projection acts as constant reminder.
The de-emphasis of surgical methods is also not understandable. The permanent method has an overwhelming advantage over any other method. And the males need far more persuasion.
A successful family planning programme is the answer to many of the country’s most crippling problems: poverty, unemployment, health and nutritional deficiency, law and order, social tension, conservation of the environment and sustainability of development.
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