A recent roundtable discussion hosted by the Punjab Public Health Agency (PPHA) on “Family Planning - the Way Forward”, underscored the need for paying the growing population bulge the attention it deserves. Pakistan’s population is increasing at an alarming rate of 2.4 percent, the region’s highest. The latest population census result shows the country has moved up from being the world’s 6th most populist country to its 5th. At this speed, it may well take the fourth place in the next two decades, making sustainable development goals unfeasible unless the issue is addressed in all its facets.
It has remained neglected for far too long. Although a population planning policy was initiated in 1965, implementation has been half-hearted at best. As a discussant at the PPHA event lamented, during the last five years nationwide contraceptive use declined from 40.7 percent to 38.3 percent. Part of the problem is lack of awareness. The subject it is not even openly discussed in public conversations on vital issues confronting the nation. One reason inhibiting progress is said to be the religious lobby’s resistance to family planning department’s efforts. Yet there are examples of other Muslim countries, such as Bangladesh and Iran, having successfully demonstrated it is possible to control population growth. There surely is something they have been doing right that this county is not. It is also important to recognize that popularizing family planning through modern methods of birth control alone will not help. Strategies aimed at human development are even more important. Well-educated and relatively prosperous people tend to produce fewer or no children at all. It is not coincident that almost all the developed countries have negative growth rates. That has been making their governments worry about there being not enough young people to work and contribute to socio-economic progress on a continual basis, leading many of them to allow immigration from other parts of the world.
Sadly, the latest UN Human Development Index ranks Pakistan at 150th place among 189 countries. That is not surprising, though. Nearly half of the people live below the poverty line, and the illiteracy rate is abysmally low. Our policymakers must not forget that a two-thirds of the population is under 30 years of age. These young people need quality education and employment opportunities to lead meaningful lives. At the current growth rate, their numbers are going to go on increasing. Heavy investments need to be made in human resource development. As last year’s UNDP report on the youth as a critical force in shaping human development warned, this youth bulge will prove to be either a dividend or disaster, depending on how Pakistan deals with its looming population explosion challenge.
