World Population Day
Can we win the race?
Dr M Ashraf Ali
It seems that the race between population increase and economic growth in Bangladesh is in full swing and perhaps the result has already been decided. When Malthus propounded his theory that population increases at a faster rate than food production and that food production would never catch up with population growth, he was ridiculed and branded as a false prophet. His theory was proved totally unsound as the Industrial Revolution in the West revolutionised and modernised agriculture to such an extent that huge surplus of food was produced using the newer technology. As a result Malthus's theory was proved wrong for the developed countries.But what about countries like Bangladesh? It has been proved beyond doubt that Malthus was very right. The gap between food shortage and population increase has been widening at such a great scale that it may never be possible to bridge the gap at all. At least in the case of Bangladesh, it appears that we have already lost the race and the consequences are staring at us with grave results. Poor in natural resources, Bangladesh is never going to be able to feed with its own produce the 150 million people it already has. And yet the population increase is in full swing. How is that the population situation has come to such a pass even with 40 years of family planning programme? After all these years, there is only a negligible fall in the rate of population increase. Huge funds have been invested in the programme throughout all these years but yet the result has been minimal. The reasons for failure are many. However, the major reason appears to be a general lack of awareness among the people mainly due to lack of education and widespread illiteracy. The technicalities involved in birth control presupposes a minimum of education. In Bangladesh, this problem has been wilfully neglected by the various governments that came to power since the Pakistan days. However, other reasons such as management and control, supporting services, follow-up programmes, etc., are no less important than the lack of awareness on the part of the people. There is a feeling among the authorities that once the money is allocated, the programme will have no problem. Huge sums have been spent on family planing programme since the days of Ayub Khan, but what has been the result? If things were managed a bit better, we could have better results. An annual increase of 1.8 percent is still very high and the rate circulated by the government may be underestimated to some degree. It goes without saying that while efforts must be made to increase food production by all means, the family planning programme has also to be geared up with all seriousness. No particular research has been done so far to find out the rates of acceptance of family planning in relation to educational level of the acceptors, but it is my feeling that only the educated has accepted family planning with seriousness. The unlettered couples are yet to understand the virtue. This phenomenon also has some genetic implication for the future of the country. It is very likely that within the next few years, the quality of generation will keep becoming poorer if only the educated practice birth control and have fewer babies. This may even lead to a national disaster. In order to gear up the family planning programme, certain measures have to be accepted without further delay: (1) The management and control system has to be improved substantially. There has been reports of abuses of all kinds in the family planning programme. This has to be stopped. (2) Consciousness building about the need for family planning should be taken seriously and appropriate schemes should be undertaken in this regard to carry the beneficial message of family planning to every nook and corner of the country. (3) The delivery system of the family planning materials should be improved so that services and materials are available to the users with the minimum of effort. (4) Finally, the most important is the supporting services and the follow-up of acceptors who might develop medical problems as a result of family planning practice. There has been complications leading to even death after vasectomy and tubectomy. Needless to mention that such things can have strong negative motivation for the prospective acceptors and can nullify the total programme. Therefore, medical services should be made available at the door-step of the clients and it should be provided free of cost. In this regard the experiences of BRAC who has been running family planning programmes in some areas of the country with success may be gainfully utilised. As has been already mentioned, we might have lost the race already and the country may be drowned by a deluge of population within foreseeable future unless substantial progress is made in population control within the shortest possible time. I do not want to heighten the pessimism that is already there and sound like a prophet of doom, but if the situation is not objectively studied and appropriate actions taken, one might find the prospect of survival very remote. Against such a backdrop of population situation, it is imperative to make an evaluation of the existing population control programme in order to locate the most pernicious problems and take appropriate measures to solve those so that positive result in this sector is ensured. Dr M. Ashraf Ali is retired Professor, IER, DU.
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