A highly overpopulated Bangladesh observes World Population Day today amid confusion over what really is the size of its population.
The day is being observed across the globe on the theme ‘World at 7 billion’ set by UNFPA to call attention of governments, communities and individuals to understand the global population issues for taking corrective action.
The day, this year, assumes greater significance as the population of the world is set to reach seven billion by the end of October 2011 from six billion 12 years ago.
For overpopulated Bangladesh it is more so as the country no more has an effective family planning service it once had.
Every year, the UN World Population Day is observed on July 11.
The day has been observed since 1989 at the initiative of the United Nations Population Fund to create awareness about the importance of family planning, maternal health, gender equality, poverty, and human rights. It is the right of every human being to decide the number and timing of their children, and this is the pervading sentiment of World Population Day.
In Bangladesh, the government as well as the NGOs took programmes in the capital city and elsewhere in the country to observe the day.
Speaking at a news briefing at his secretariat office, health and family welfare minister AFM Ruhal Haque said on Sunday that it was on the government’s priority to control the country’s population boom.
He, however, said that the government finds doorstep delivery of health and family planning services a difficult proposition.
‘It’s difficult for a poor country like Bangladesh to ensure door-step delivery of health and family planning services to the public,’ he said.
He said he was ‘reasonably happy’ with his ministry’s overall performance in family welfare programmes.
Asked whether the country’s population was 15 crore as the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics states or more than16 crore as the UN report of 2008 states, the minister said they should come up with a single statistics.
He said that he spoke to the prime minister about the confusion.
He also said that he expected the census report of 2011 to remove the confusion.
Apparently embarrassed by the queries, Ruhal said that as his ministry did not know the exact size of the country’s population, he would refrain from saying anything about it at the moment.
The government, he said took a number of actions to step up family planning activities in the country by filling vacancies in the family planning directorate and ensuring adequate stocks of contraceptives.
He said that the government was preparing to take a programme to motivate couples to go to service centres it runs at community clinics to get family planning services and contraceptives.
The minister said that 61.7 per cent of the couples were using family planning methods while the government wanted to raise the coverage to 80 per cent by 2021.
Health minister would inaugurate the government’s programme to observe the day at Osmani Memorial Auditorium at 9 AM today.
The health ministry would award the best field level family welfare assistants and best service provider organisations.
A colourful procession would be taken from Bangladesh Shishu Academy to Osmani Memorial Auditorium at 8.30 AM under the initiative of the ministry.
The Department of Population Science of Dhaka University would organise a discussion at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban of the university at 1.30 PM. A colourful procession would be taken out from Aparajeyo Bangla
on the campus under its initiative.
-With New Age input
