ISLAMABAD, Aug 9: The government can check the population growth rate by adopting participatory approach and enhancing literacy among women.

These views were expressed by participants at a seminar on “Population policy; Challenges for implementation,” organized by the Population Association of Pakistan, at a local hotel on Friday.

The speakers highlighted the importance of participatory approach and partnership between the welfare ministry and civil society organizations to implement the government’s population policy. They said lack of a comprehensive policy on human development would be the biggest hurdle in checking population growth rate.

The federal secretary, women development ministry, Parveen Agha, said policies were just guidelines and did not include everything. “The new population policy is unique in the sense that it has an evaluation mechanism,” she added.

She said there had been a positive decline in population growth rate in the country since 1960. Some countries have no policies regarding population welfare, she added. “It will take a few more years to know how much the new policy contributes toward checking the population growth rate,” the federal secretary said.

The Population Association of Pakistan president, Dr M. S. Jillani, said it was the first ever population policy and it would also focus on the aging population in the country.

The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics director, A. R. Kemal, said: “Various policies drafted by the government have the same strategies and action plans, but we are poor in implementing the policies.” The country’s population is going through a transitional phase and there should be a relationship between the action plan and population growth rate, he added.