Population explosion

Population explosion

Synopsis

Pakistan adds 4 to 5 million people every year to its population

Population explosion
Advertisement

Pakistan’s unbridled population growth of 2.4 per cent per annum has emerged the biggest challenge for the country, yet the successive governments have never kept it high on their priority list.

Today, Pakistan stands as the sixth most populous country in the world with a population of 207.8 million as per 2017 controversial census, but it is likely to double in a short span of 30 years.

Already, since independence in 1947, when the country’s population was 32 million (in West Pakistan), it has increased by more than six-folds. Leading demographers say that today it has already crossed the 221 million-mark — and increasing fast every day.

According to the Population Council, Pakistan adds 4 to 5 million people every year to its population — a figure almost equivalent to the entire population of New Zealand.

Officials predict that by 2030, the country’s population will shoot up to 285 million. Such high population growth rate is unsustainable and has already eaten into the modest gains made in terms of socio-economic development. The booming population has negative implications across the board.

Advertisement

If the population continues to grow at its current rate, experts say that the country will need at least 117 million new jobs by 2040, 19 million additional houses and 85,000 new primary schools just to ensure that at least two out of three children aged between 5-16 can get themselves enrolled at the primary level.

The population issue was recently highlighted in the Senate over a query made by Senator Seemee Ezdi about controlling the rapid population growth during the last 10 years as recommended by the Council of Common Interests (CCI).

According to the reply of Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination nearly, one-fourth of Pakistan’s population continues to live below the national poverty-line with the absolute numbers of poor increasing due to population growth rates.

Approximately 60 percent of the country’s population faces food insecurity and nearly 50 per cent of the women and children are malnourished, according to the reply. Many children suffer from long-term nutritional deprivation, poor health services, illnesses linked to hygiene, and improper feeding practices, the ministry said. Meanwhile it also highlighted a number of initiatives which either have already been taken or are on the cards to check the population growth rate issue.

The federal government has planned to create a five-year non-lapsable Special Fund with an annual allocation of Rs10 billion in an attempt to curb the population growth rate. The fund shall be set up exclusively from federal resources without any cut from provincial funds.

The government also plans to develop a national narrative in consultation with provinces and other stakeholders to create awareness about the issue of war-footing. PEMRA has been assigned the job to provide free airtime for family planning messages on radio and TV channels at prime time.

Advertisement

The HEC and federal and the provincial education departments have been assigned the job to include population control in secondary and higher secondary schools. The family planning commodities will be included in the essential drug list of primary secondary and tertiary drug list.

Fourteen adolescent sexual reproductive health (ASRH) centres have been established in districts, including Charsadda, Chitral Lower, DI Khan, Haripur and others.

Ministry of National Health Services has drafted four bills regarding Family Planning and Reproductive Health (FP&RH) Rights, Child Marriage Restraint and Premarital Counseling etc. Early Child Marriage Restraint Bill has been drafted in KP and vetted by Law Department and an act has been prepared by Social Welfare Department and submitted it for approval to the provincial government of Balochistan.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Read More News On

Catch all the Breaking News Event and Latest News Updates on The BOL News


Download The BOL News App to get the Daily News Update & Follow us on Google News.


End of Article

Next Story