Failing family planning drive

Bangladesh, according to some media reports, is regressing in popularizing family planning activities. It is needless to say that this is a piece of ominous news for a country which is already too overburdened with its huge population in a relatively small territory. Out of the country's total population of over 150 million people, over 25 million are fertile couples or fit for reproduction. But the worry is that out of this number of fertile couples, some 6.2 million or 25 per cent are presently considered to be not practising any form of family planning. There is no parallel of a small country of about 55,000 square miles only crammed already with so many people like today's Bangladesh. The spectre of overpopulation, not balanced by supporting resources for sustaining the population, would almost surely make life and living very wretched at some stage, in this country. There is no time to lose in reducing the population growth rate. It must be immediately recognized as one of the very major national problems. The identification should be followed up urgently by completely revamping the government-run various population control activities which are very shabbily run at the moment. Amir Khasru Nasirabad, Chittagong