‘Joint efforts crucial for population control’

LAHORE : Mandatory matriculation education and other effective measures are required for population growth rate control in Pakistan.

Cooperation of religious scholars and leaders of all political parties is crucial for the purpose, said the experts in Jang Economic Session on “Government and Public Responsibilities for Population Control.”

The panelists were Abdul Basit Khan, Shahzad Ahmed Malik, Dr Ehsan Malik, Dr Ikramul Haq, Dr Javria Qaias and Waheed Raza Bhatti. The event was hosted by Sikindar Lodhi. Abdul Basit Khan said overpopulation was a global issue as the world population in 1,804 was only one billion but now it over 7 billion while 4.5 billion people, more than a half of the world population, live in Asia. He said population growth was not due to increase in birth rate but it was because of improvement in health sciences and availability of life saving drugs.

He said Pakistan population was more than 220 million mainly due to early age marriages, unavailability and awareness of contraceptives, and desire for more sons. He called for counselling of married and unmarried people, besides conducting seminars in the urban and rural areas. He said the central and provincial governments should coordinate each other.

Shahzad Ahmed Malik said that reasons for population growth in different countries were different. Economic security is linked in the rural areas with more kids in Pakistan. He suggested using the services of midwives, lady health workers and doctors for population control by giving them incentives. He lamented the low development resources of Population Welfare Department. Dr Ehsan Malik said that family planning was not about only birth control but it was also about upbringing of children and provision of facilities to them. Cultural pressure exists on family planning in Pakistan’s society. There is a need to create awareness to end the pressure. He said closure of industries was a major reason for population growth and unemployment. The government should do more for population control, said Dr Ehsan Malik.

Dr Ikramul Haq said economy was under pressure due to population growth and every year two million youths were adding to the workforce and creation of employment for them was a serious challenge. He called for birth control mechanism along with economic strategy. He suggested modernisation of agriculture and industrialisation for job creation, beside giving special packages to people in the agriculture sector to discourage births. He said effective birth control campaign could be run from mosques in the rural areas.

Dr Javria Qaias said the concept of more kids prevailed in poor families of both rural and urban areas while educated people did family planning for better education and upbringing of their children. She stressed the need for creating awareness and imparting education on equality basis, provision of recreational activities, ensuring employment to resolve the serious issue of population growth. She said both government and public should perform their duties in this regard. The government should provide facilities to the families with two kids.

Waheed Raza Bhatti said that population pressure in the rural areas was high due to lack of awareness and 60 per cent of total population belonged to the rural areas due to which serious socio economic issues were emerging. He called for discouraging tradition of early age marriages and fixing 20 years as legal age of marriage.