Pakistan's Population ' to double by 2024'
21 August 2009
Source: Business Recorder 2009
The Punjab government has expressed fears that if population growth is not contained, the country's population may double in 39 years, to 190 million by 2020.
With a view to increasing accessibility of quality reproductive health services, including family planning and creating awareness about adverse effects of rapidly growing population, the Punjab government in collaboration with UNFPA has launched a project that is being implemented in various districts of the province.
Sources in the Population Welfare Department told Business Recorder, here on Tuesday that population growth rate has declined from three percent in 1980s to 1.8 percent now. However, if population growth was not contained, the country's population may double in 39 years translating an increase to 190 million by 2020, they feared.
The Punjab government was attaching priority to the rapidly increasing population and taking necessary steps to control it, they said. The federal government prepared a development plan costing Rs 52 billion for the next five years for the approval by the Planning Commission, they added. The Punjab Minister for Population Welfare, Neelam Jabbar Chaudhry has urged religious scholars and political activists to extend a helping hand in creating awareness about population development issues.
She said that the reproductive health rights, female education and gender quality matters were given more importance in teachings of Islam. She said that brotherly Muslim countries of Bangladesh, Egypt and Indonesia have involved religious leaders in their population control programmes.
They were playing an important role in saving the lives of women and children by promoting a holistic approach to family planning, she said, adding, that Pakistan could learn from the experiences and successes of the brotherly countries for improving the quality of life of our citizens.
She said that Ulema would also be sent to Iran, Indonesia, Egypt and Bangladesh to seek knowledge of their experience vis-A-vis checking the population growth. The minister said that population growth rate in the developing countries is 3 to 7 percent whereas, it is 0.5 percent in Japan, 0.3 percent in Germany, 0.1 percent in England and 1 percent in the United States.
She called for creating awareness among people regarding the rapidly increasing population, as the increased population can only increase problems for the nation. 'Due to limited resources, the number of maternity death is rising every day, five children are born every minute in the country and in consequence 11538 children born in Pakistan every day out of which 3600 die the same day due to various complications,' she said.
According to her, the world's population is more than 6 billion and it would be doubled in 2050 and Pakistan's population would also be doubled in 2024. Without providing quality healthcare and educational facilities to the masses at grass root level, the rapid growth in population cannot be controlled, therefore, the government has prioritised both the departments at its agenda.
She said that rising population was increasing unemployment, which resulted in poor law and order situation and other socio-economic problems. The key to solve all these problems is to control the critical issue of population as the current crises cannot be solved without reduction in population growth and the people needed to be educated, she added. She said the Punjab government had initiated initiatives in education, health and other social sectors to provide relief to the masses and improving their standard of living.