Overpopulation

When discussing the problems facing the nation, some typical issues are highlighted. These include health, education, unemployment, law and order and interregional problems. However, one of the most serious problems confronting the nation is overpopulation.

Pakistan has become the fifth most populous country in the world, which is nothing to be proud of. The problem of an exploding population genuinely imperils the nation’s future. Unfortunately, it doesn’t receive the attention it deserves from the rulers.

An editorial in an English newspaper once wrote that the population bomb was not only ticking, it had already exploded. It could have gleefully added ‘and people are picking up its pieces to sell in the market to fill their empty stomachs’. More so, as the country’s population jumped from 207.68 million in 2017 to 247.5 million in 2023. Adding nearly forty million heads in five years must raise eyebrows. Bangladesh's population at the same time stood at 171.5 million. Mind you, the east wing population was 65 million in 1971 and the west wing’s 58 million. How did Bangladesh succeed in controlling its population and progressing while we couldn’t manage it?

Effective control of population will, in return, reduce society’s other serious problems, such as poverty and lack of education. When 26 million children don’t attend school, what kind of society do we expect to shape up? A dependable solution to population growth rests in addressing the root causes, which are essentially poverty, lack of education and religious factors. Bangladesh managed to handle the last sector prudently. Why can't we do it?

Even though population control deserves serious consideration by the government, we neither hear about the Population Planning Department nor see its large advertisements as was the practice some years ago. The organisation has been renamed as the Population Welfare Department, but has it made any difference in the lives of the people? What is the duty of this department when the population of the country is multiplying by adding more than five million heads every year? It happens to be New Zealand’s overall population.

To use trendy terms, 'population explosion' or 'population time bomb' only means that our population is growing at an alarming rate, which will lead to serious economic, social and environmental consequences. We have already witnessed an exodus of people from villages and small towns to main cities, causing innumerable social and economic problems. For example, so many residential colonies are springing up in the outskirts of Lahore.

Undoubtedly, overpopulation leads to poverty, unemployment, competition for jobs and resources. Social services, healthcare and education sectors suffer directly. Yet, there are countries whose population is declining. Japan surfaces at the top. Its population has been declining for the last many years. Similarly, the population of Germany and Italy is also decreasing. But the decline in population of these countries doesn’t lead them to any adverse situation, compared with how overpopulation impacts Pakistan. In any case, an overpopulated nation with a low literacy rate and unemployment is nothing but a huge, uproarious crowd. The situation turns even worse when a large population in the country is forced by its circumstances to live below the poverty line.

The writer is a freelance columnist based in Lahore. He can be reached at: pinecity@gmail.com