By: Fsahat Ul Hassan
According to the Pakistan Medical Association approximately 15,000 babies born on the 1st day of 2019 in Pakistan, and unreported cases are not taken into account which certainly would have huge number. If we take 15,000 as an average number, 5.5 million children will be added in 220 million population by the end of 2019; this should be a serious concern and alarming situation for the entire nation.
Population and family planning has become one of the hot topics in Pakistan since Chief Justice of Pakistan took suo-motu action, many people are questioning that why it’s important to talk about Family Planning and population control. It’s surprising when we look back in the history and compare it with today’s situation. Population of West Pakistan (today’s Pakistan) was 33 million while East Pakistan (modern day Bangladesh) was 42 million in 1951 whereas today population of Pakistan is over 220 million and population of Bangladesh is around 166 million. It means Bangladesh had realized the situation, implemented policy effectively on family planning while Pakistan who was behind Bangladesh in terms of Population is far ahead today and there is no clear population policy since 2009.
You know why I think population growth is a real issue of Pakistan because
- 22 million children are not going to school
- 90% Population is not being provided with clean and safe drinking water, malnutrition and food scarcity is a big problem now a days
- 12,000 mothers are dying during pregnancy annually, while millions of couples cope with unwanted births each year in the country
- 3% of girls in Pakistan are married before the age 16 and 21% before the age of 18
- 6,325 people in Pakistan has one doctor and list goes on
We can imagine where these numbers will go, if our population grows with the same pace. If we talk about Family Planning programs, many are ongoing but haven’t achieved the desired results, instead the situation is worsening every passing year. Officially estimated population growth is around 2.1 per cent and the fertility rate is estimated to be 4.1 births per woman in Pakistan; both of which are currently lagging behind the data for the same, in all South Asian countries except Afghanistan. Current unmet need for family planning stands at 17 percent while contraceptive prevalence rate has dropped to 34 percent and is the lowest in the region as compared to 77 percent in Iran, 68 percent in Sri Lanka and 62 percent in Bangladesh. If Pakistan would control fertility, it could save thousands of mothers’ lives, and would save millions living in poverty.
The Population Council of Pakistan has estimated that only 35.4 per cent of women in the country are currently practicing contraception and that more than 20 per cent of married women want to practice contraception to space out birth or limit their family size but is unable to do so. This is mainly because of widespread illiteracy, cultural taboos and inaccessibility to high quality family planning or birth spacing services.
Ghabrany ki Bat ni (No need to worry about), there is 65% of young population under the age of 30, who can be a great strength. what we need is a clear policy and commitment around family planning because we cannot expand our land neither resources but we can control our population. I think along with government, civil society, government departments and private sector need to invest (time or resources) in family planning movement. Most importantly, there should be appropriate and authentic information available for young people on Sexual and Reproductive Health in schools and Life Skills Based Education (LSBE) need to be integrated in the mainstream curriculum. Though Sindh province has taken initial steps to integrate LSBE but other provinces are far behind to do any progress in this regard. After the decision of Supreme Court and Council of Common Interests, I hope LSBE programs will be implemented in all schools of Pakistan. At the same time, we shouldn’t forget youth and children who are out of school; a peer education program should be started because youth can spread the message more effectively amongst their peers who are getting married or going to merry in future. Government should provide opportunities and resources to youth led organizations and networks like National Youth Alliance on Family Planning to raise awareness at grassroots level.
Countering taboos and effective measures around family planning will be the key for the success of any family planning program in Pakistan.
The writer is Director Development The Dayspring and Chairman Youth Advocacy Network, he tweets @ /fsahat
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