Population as resource
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Bangladesh has, over the past three decades, made impressive progress in curbing the birth rate, currently averaging 2.7, but given the dynamics of a youthful population, it is still considered too high. During question time at the Jatiya Sangsad last week, when one member appeared concerned and asked whether the nation's masjids and mandirs -- 42,500 and 24,000 respectively -- could be used to advantage to raise awareness about family planning, the Prime Minister said she did not consider Bangladesh's huge population a liability at all, but rather an asset. Although she said this quite lightly, the words can be more profound than realized. It should be possible to tap the latent talents of the teeming masses, if governments in Bangladesh were enlightened enough to invest consistently and sustainably in real human resource development.
Although there is no denying that people in this land-scarce country are far too fertile -- the total population figure is now 148.8 million and is growing by 18 to 20 hundred thousand a year -- the root problem is not the people but the failure of successive governments to ensure equitable distribution of resources to meet the constitutionally pledged targets of universal education, health care, employment and shelter. Investment in these vital sectors have always, everywhere, proved to be the best contraceptive. Policy makers therefore ought to remove their blinkers vis-à-vis the poor and powerless who deserve an honest and unprejudiced assessment, if Bangladesh is to take advantage of the youthful work force to the optimum. The Prime Minister has also mentioned the terrible birth dearth in many developed countries where the weight of senior citizens is beginning to tell on the tax payers. This is an opportunity that Bangladesh's young people could seize easily if the government initiated capacity-building programmes designed to fill specific niches abroad.
The Prime Minister herself heads a National Population Council, formed last year, following a draft population policy, to function as an inter-ministerial -- as many as 20 of them involved -- evaluation committee. The new policy slogan has been, 'No more than two children --- but one is better.' Advocacy is to be emphasized to raise awareness, as it should be, but the practice of publishing reports, erecting billboards and advertising on city-based media is a sheer waste of money that could be better spent on door-to-door IEC (information, education and communication) in the backward areas where poor women have no say at all about contraception or reproduction. In such situations, husband-wife teams of family planning workers have been known to work wonders, with men being persuaded to go for harmless, non-invasive contraception, including vasectomy, thus sparing their women of the adverse health effects of pills, injections and the like. The focus should be on enhancing the lives of the people, through universal education (that includes primary health care and reproduction), productive employment and other vital inputs, to help get them out of the vicious cycle of deprivations -- poverty-illiteracy-poor health-low productivity -- that compel the poor to bank on babies for 'social security.'
Although there is no denying that people in this land-scarce country are far too fertile -- the total population figure is now 148.8 million and is growing by 18 to 20 hundred thousand a year -- the root problem is not the people but the failure of successive governments to ensure equitable distribution of resources to meet the constitutionally pledged targets of universal education, health care, employment and shelter. Investment in these vital sectors have always, everywhere, proved to be the best contraceptive. Policy makers therefore ought to remove their blinkers vis-à-vis the poor and powerless who deserve an honest and unprejudiced assessment, if Bangladesh is to take advantage of the youthful work force to the optimum. The Prime Minister has also mentioned the terrible birth dearth in many developed countries where the weight of senior citizens is beginning to tell on the tax payers. This is an opportunity that Bangladesh's young people could seize easily if the government initiated capacity-building programmes designed to fill specific niches abroad.
The Prime Minister herself heads a National Population Council, formed last year, following a draft population policy, to function as an inter-ministerial -- as many as 20 of them involved -- evaluation committee. The new policy slogan has been, 'No more than two children --- but one is better.' Advocacy is to be emphasized to raise awareness, as it should be, but the practice of publishing reports, erecting billboards and advertising on city-based media is a sheer waste of money that could be better spent on door-to-door IEC (information, education and communication) in the backward areas where poor women have no say at all about contraception or reproduction. In such situations, husband-wife teams of family planning workers have been known to work wonders, with men being persuaded to go for harmless, non-invasive contraception, including vasectomy, thus sparing their women of the adverse health effects of pills, injections and the like. The focus should be on enhancing the lives of the people, through universal education (that includes primary health care and reproduction), productive employment and other vital inputs, to help get them out of the vicious cycle of deprivations -- poverty-illiteracy-poor health-low productivity -- that compel the poor to bank on babies for 'social security.'