Population explosion -a horrendous problem

Pakistan is confronted with a horrendous problem of population explosion. The unabated rate of population growth is bursting asunder the entire economic planning and social uplift program. The current situation raises propounding disturbing questions on whether, and how, man can survive his own biggest error.
If the present rate of sprouting population goes unchecked the country would move towards the worst-ever crises in near future. Such a state of affairs could end up in famines and consequent deaths through starvation. This is a concern for all countries - those who have enough grains to supply and those at the receiving end.
Pakistan with over 148.6 million people living on its soil is the seventh most populous country on the globe and fourth in Asia and pacific region. The current trends do not present a rosy situation. The growth rate has been 2.6 percent per annum during 1981-98 inter-censal periods that translates into a net annual addition of 3.4 million people to the existing population of the country.
In view of this unabated trend Pakistan's population would shoot to 195.5 million by 2020, says a National Institute of Population Studies (NIPS) report. Imagine the growth rate in 1951 we had 33.7 million people - and in 2003 we were 148.6 million. This being the highest growth rate of all large Asian countries and is a consequence of a slow but steady decline in mortality with only a small corresponding decline in fertility. Although fertility is falling rapidly in most Asian countries, a typical Pakistan woman still has about 5.6 births in her life (3.9 in India and 4.4 in Bangladesh). About 40 percent of married women in Pakistan tend to avoid or postpone further pregnancy. It is high time the population programme was launched on war footing basis. The on-going coordinated electronic and print media campaigns need to be further streamlined and stepped up by the experts. NGOs, Public leaders, religious leaders and elders down to the remote rural areas need to be involved. Curbs and confessional measures have to be undertaken in the best interests of survival. A legislation to limit the births to two is the call of the time. The teams already working to accomplish jobs in urban and rural areas must take the task more seriously. Incentives and facilities to such a task force would help them achieve the objective of arresting the population growth. The educational and motivational drives should also reflect the ugly consequences of population blast. Keeping in view the Government campaign the achievements in this sector are becoming visible and can be gauged from the fact that population control has become a household by-word. It was a subject that could not be even hinted at without hurting religious susceptibilities.
As regards the funding of government population welfare sector foreign assistance in millions of dollars is being received that includes a huge aid from World Bank and International Development Association (IDA).
Meanwhile, the village based Family Planning workers scheme was launched in 1992 to step up the coverage of Family Welfare Program in rural areas to ensure its accessibility in villages. The scheme was expanded during Eight Five Year Plan 1993-98 and established a promising foundation for the provision of family planning services in remote areas. But the scheme faced a setback as its endeavours were directed towards female population only-the cadre comprised only female workers. As a matter of fact the entire Population Program was faced with this limitation as the family welfare centres provided services to female clients only and efforts with regard to sterilisation were only for females. A strong need to introduce a cadre of male workers for access to males also was badly felt.
International Conference on Population and Development that was held in Cairo about a decade ago underscored the need of responsible male participation in population welfare Program to motivate and convince couples to adopt small family norm. So the cadre of male village based family planning workers was created. The Population Welfare Ministry launched the male workers project in some districts in 1998-99 on pilot basis. But the planned increase in number of male workers in phases could not be achieved. In 1998-99 the workers numbered 612. The target for 2003-03 was 7012 but the end of 2000-01 could register only 787 for the job. According to NIPS evaluation study the on job training was of vital importance to prepare a functionary to perform the job efficiently that was not done. In fact the entire training program was badly planned and remained disorganised. So the results become obvious.
The priorities of the population program should include expansion and improvement of service delivery network particularly in the rural areas, enhancement of visibility, sustained political support, launching of crash training program and strengthening of operational research.
The chief objective of the strategy should be to expand the program coverage of population to 100 percent in the urban and 80 percent in the rural areas.
For all practical purposes and achievement of positive results monitoring, supervision, surprise visits and regular review of the program infrastructure at the Federal, Provincial, Divisional, District and Tehsil level should be carried out.