‘Poverty, lack of education to blame for rapid population growth’

Karachi
The developing countries have a high rate of population growth due to poverty and lack of education, Professor Dr Nasreen Aslam Shah, the director of tge Centre of Excellence for Women Studies of Karachi University, said on Wednesday.
In a seminar entitled “Population Growth in Pakistan: perspective, issues and challenges in family planning,” organised by the varsity’s department of social works, she cited a UN report which said that alarmingly under-age pregnancies had risen to 7.3 million annually.
Speaking on the domestic challenges in this regard, Dr Shah noted: “Eight children were born every minute in Pakistan and 58 out of 1,000 infant die due to lack of medical facilities for the newborns.
“If the population continues to increase at the same pace, then the country’s population would be around 400 million in 2050.”
“Child marriage is also major factor behind the high population growth rate as it is an accepted norm in impoverished families,” Dr Shah added.
She concluded her speech by saying that the population growth rate could only be controlled if the maternity care was prioritised by the state and society. The managing director of the DKT Foundation, Ambreen Thompson, in her presentation on population growth, social norms and women role in family planning, said that despite a number of awareness drives in the country, strangely the society at large still considered it a taboo to discuss family planning.
Assistant Professor Social Work Department Dr Sakina Riaz and State Bank of Pakistan official Raheeq Ahmed Khan Lodhi also expressed his views on family planning and societal norms and issues.