Curbing population growth rate for early graduation to a middle-income economy

Anu Mahmud The Prime Minister (PM) is on record, as having said that the population of Bangladesh is more an asset than a liability. That was apparently a response in a lighter vein from her side during question-time at the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) in June last year (2010). The response came while the PM was answering a question by one concerned member about whether the nation's mosques and temples -- 42,500 and 24,000 respectively -- could be used to rev up reproductive healthfamily planning awareness among those who needed to be motivated most. Although over the past three decades, Bangladesh has made some impressive progress in curbing the birth rate, the growth rate is still considered too high. The 'youth bulge' in particular is considerable, likely to boom in no time, given the fact that nearly half of the country's population is under 15 years of age. This demographic situation has its own natural growth dynamics. Having noted this, it will perhaps be worthwhile to point out here that there is no denying that the PM's words could be more profoundly meaningful if proper investment could be made in Bangladesh's human resources. Such investments have remained otherwise to be the topmost policy-priority for all governments. Tapping the latent talents and aptitude of the teeming masses and bringing about a sea-change in the country's socio-economic standards will be possible when public investment is increasingly consistently and sustainably made in Bangladesh for enhancing the quality of people's lives -- through balanced nutrition, proper education and productive employment. The problem of overpopulation in this land-scarce country is monumental. Currently the country's total population figure is now estimated to be around 150 million. It has furthermore been growing by 18 to 20 hundred thousand a year. But it is wrong to blame the people for the multi-dimensional problems, associated with overpopulation; it is the failure of successive governments to ensure equitable distribution of resources to meet the constitutionally pledged targets of universal education, healthcare, employment and shelter. This failure is perhaps more responsible than anything else for this. If these important sectors could have been properly prioritized, the country's population would have stabilized much earlier. Such an approach has proved itself to be the best contraceptive wherever it was implemented. The policy-makers cannot ignore investment in the poor and powerless if Bangladesh is to forge ahead, taking advantage of its youthful workforce. Considering the problem of a severe fall in birth rate in many developed countries where the weight of senior citizens is beginning to tell upon the tax payers, Bangladesh's situation could have really been turned into a great advantage if the right education and skill could be imparted to the young in earnest to fill the specific needs o the country. In this context, the emphasis needs to be placed on raising awareness. But it must also be admitted that the practice of publishing reports after reports, erecting billboards and advertising on city-based media have so far made hardly any real sense. The money that is wasted on such areas of publicities could be better spent if door-to-door IEC (Information, Education and Communication) activities in the backward areas, are undertaken, instead. Most poor women have no say at all about contraception or reproduction. In such a situation, husband-wife teams of family planning workers can work wonders, with men being persuaded to go for harmless, non-invasive contraception, including vasectomy. This can spare the poor women of the adverse health-effects of pills, injections and the like. These do harm more to the malnourished than they do to the better-off. Population control activities are de facto absent now in the country's urban areas. This does largely reflect the state of the situation about population control activities. Efforts being made to control population have decelerated in Dhaka and other major cities and municipal towns. Lack of coordination in running population control activities is reported to be one of the major reasons for such a negative development. Since its inception in 1973, the Family Planning Directorate (FPD) used to run and monitor the entire population control programmes all over the country. But under a memorandum of understanding reached in 1997, the city corporations and municipal authorities have been assigned the task of providing basic healthcare and population control services. Theoretically, there is nothing wrong with such a division of work. But in view of the performance records of such public bodies in all possible fields of urban life, the afore-mentioned decision was, perhaps, not based on proper judgment or those local bodies were assigned the task without enhancing first their capabilities. And now the result is that the urban population growth rate has, according to a report, risen to more than what it was two decades and a half before. Thanks to aggressive implementation of family planning programmes and door-to-door services by female family welfare assistants and availability of necessary methods either free or at cheaper rates. Bangladesh made earlier remarkable progress in the area, particularly in its rural part. But, as is usually the case with the government agencies in Bangladesh, they create much sound and fury at a certain period and then fall in a deep slumber the next moment. The initial enthusiasm has now subsided and given way to slow implementation of the programmes and even non-availability of birth control services. The situation is worrisome particularly in the urban areas. The poor couples there are largely disinterested in controlling the birth rate. It is due to this reality that about 75 per cent babies of Dhaka city are born in the slum areas where 40 per cent of its population live. At the present birth rate, the population of Bangladesh is projected to reach more than 260 million by 2050. All development efforts of the country are likely to be negated by the growing population burden, if this situation persists. Additional people mean additional pressure on resources like land, water, forest and minerals. This process will be faster if the growth of population continues in an unabated way at its present stage. The range of tasks to face this challenge under such circumstances can hardly be overemphasized. The authorities concerned need to shake off their lethargy and take up the tasks with full vigour. Unfortunately, population control and family planning activities constitute one of the areas on which the authorities prefer to remain be least frank and communicative. In the years after liberation, population control activities were listed as the country's number one problem. The apparent official indifference , as is now evidenced, to the need for controlling population growth makes one wonder whether they do at all consider it now as a problem or not. The problem was not highlighted in the election agenda of either of the two main parties; it was not emphasized in the way one would have expect it in the finance minister' budget speech; it does not figure in much in present day's political rhetoric. Against this backdrop, it is widely feared whether even the modest gains of the previous decades now stand to be neutralized as a result of the benign neglect shown to this sector. The run-away growth of population is eating up the nation's progress in some important areas. It is the mother of all problems --unemployment, law and order, social tension and loss of harmony, illiteracy, food shortage and hunger, sickness and malnutrition, water supply, environmental pollution. In short, all relevant development indices are depressed as a result; all plans and calculations are warped by unabated population growth rate at an unmanageable proportion. The Department of Family Planning is now reportedly plagued by the problem of supply of contraceptives; the department concerned has been failing to make available contraceptives including pills and condoms to the eligible couples in disaster-prone areas due to low stock. Some demographers say that because of non-availability of contraceptives, unexpected pregnancy is raising, and more than 85,000 babies are born in slums and costal areas every year. An adequate supply of contraceptives needs to be ensured, particularly in the coastal regions. It was reported in a section of the media in the recent past that some isolated coastal areas and chars (islets) remained outside the ambit of family planning activities. If supply is running out in the absence of timely reinforcement, it means the area is not being given the attention that it deserves to receive. Furthermore, even if supply is regularly maintained, it will not automatically result in birth prevention, since there is a personal factor involved in the process. Timely use of services by the eligible couples and the level of the users' interest are critical here. This is true about all non-permanent methods of family planning activities. Population control should be the kingpin of all efforts. If we can curb the growth we can hasten the process for the graduation of the country to that of a middle income economy. The writer is a regular contributor to the print media. He may be reached at email : anumahmud@yahoo.com.