Population must be kept under control to avert social disasters
Thursday, 12 July 2007
The country's population must be kept under control to avert social disasters.
Projecting the adverse impacts of overpopulation, Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed made the call while inaugurating a programme jointly organised by the Department of Family Planning and UNFPA at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the city Wednesday marking the World Population Day 2007, reports UNB.
The chief adviser called upon government, non-government and voluntary organisations as well as the people of all walks of life to help attain net reproductive rate (NRR) of 1 by 2010.
The theme of this year's World Population Day is 'Men as Partners in Maternal Health'.
Ahmed said Bangladesh is one of the most densely-populated countries in the world with more than 140 million (14 crore) people. Over 900 people are now living in every square kilometre area.
He said the population growth in Bangladesh is still very high and if it is not controlled sustainable development and social stability of the country will be at stake.
"If the population boom cannot be controlled, there will be huge pressure on this small country having limited resources. The standard of life will fall, employment opportunities will get reduced and arable and forest lands will decrease rapidly", he added.
The CA further said meeting the demand of food, housing, education and health services would become harder while the environment and ecology would be endangered if the current population growth cannot be checked.
He said many countries in the world have reached the pinnacle of progress by keeping their population under control and utilising it properly.
"We also want to march towards the same goal by turning our population into human resources", he added.
Ahmed said prevention of the high maternal and child mortality rate is another big challenge in population control. Still, 3-4 mothers in 1,000 childbirth die in Bangladesh.
"That rate is four to seven times lower in countries like China, Thailand and Sri Lanka", he said.
Referring to high child mortality rate, he said bringing all children under the expanded programme of immunisation is very important. The rate of full-fledged immunised children has been increased to 71 per cent in 2006 from 51 per cent in 1997.
The CA called upon the non-government organisations (NGOs) to supplement the government efforts to achieve the target of increasing the immunisation coverage to 90 per cent by 2010.
Referring to this year's theme of the World Population Day, he said the matter is very important in a male-dominated society like ours where negligence, repression, violence and deprivation of women are too common.
"Husband's decision is very important in the case of reproductive health, pregnancy and family planning. The role of the father and the brother gets priority in childhood marriage, selecting a bridegroom, health services and other matters", he said.
The chief adviser said the rate of contraceptive acceptance by male is declining every year as it has come down to 10 percent or below from nearly 44 per cent during 1985-86.
Projecting the adverse impacts of overpopulation, Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed made the call while inaugurating a programme jointly organised by the Department of Family Planning and UNFPA at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the city Wednesday marking the World Population Day 2007, reports UNB.
The chief adviser called upon government, non-government and voluntary organisations as well as the people of all walks of life to help attain net reproductive rate (NRR) of 1 by 2010.
The theme of this year's World Population Day is 'Men as Partners in Maternal Health'.
Ahmed said Bangladesh is one of the most densely-populated countries in the world with more than 140 million (14 crore) people. Over 900 people are now living in every square kilometre area.
He said the population growth in Bangladesh is still very high and if it is not controlled sustainable development and social stability of the country will be at stake.
"If the population boom cannot be controlled, there will be huge pressure on this small country having limited resources. The standard of life will fall, employment opportunities will get reduced and arable and forest lands will decrease rapidly", he added.
The CA further said meeting the demand of food, housing, education and health services would become harder while the environment and ecology would be endangered if the current population growth cannot be checked.
He said many countries in the world have reached the pinnacle of progress by keeping their population under control and utilising it properly.
"We also want to march towards the same goal by turning our population into human resources", he added.
Ahmed said prevention of the high maternal and child mortality rate is another big challenge in population control. Still, 3-4 mothers in 1,000 childbirth die in Bangladesh.
"That rate is four to seven times lower in countries like China, Thailand and Sri Lanka", he said.
Referring to high child mortality rate, he said bringing all children under the expanded programme of immunisation is very important. The rate of full-fledged immunised children has been increased to 71 per cent in 2006 from 51 per cent in 1997.
The CA called upon the non-government organisations (NGOs) to supplement the government efforts to achieve the target of increasing the immunisation coverage to 90 per cent by 2010.
Referring to this year's theme of the World Population Day, he said the matter is very important in a male-dominated society like ours where negligence, repression, violence and deprivation of women are too common.
"Husband's decision is very important in the case of reproductive health, pregnancy and family planning. The role of the father and the brother gets priority in childhood marriage, selecting a bridegroom, health services and other matters", he said.
The chief adviser said the rate of contraceptive acceptance by male is declining every year as it has come down to 10 percent or below from nearly 44 per cent during 1985-86.