KARACHI, April 2: Sindh minister for population welfare, Dr Saeeda Malik has vowed to bring down the current population growth rate of 2.2% to 1.9% in the province by the year 2004, as envisaged under the 9th five-year plan.

She stated this on Wednesday while speaking at a high-level meeting in her office attended, among others, by secretary population welfare department, Mushtaq Memon, and other high officials of the department.

She expressed the hope that in pursuance of the target all the officials of the department, specially field workers, would work with zeal and sincerity.

The minister presented an analysis of the current population of Sindh.

“Youths between the age of one to 14 years constitute 40.5 % of the total ratio, those between 15 to 24 years are 17.6 %, 25 to 49-year olds are 30.00% and those above 50 years of age are 11.9 %”.

She informed the meeting that some 0.7 million people were added annually to the current strength of the population of the province which was by any standard a high ratio.

The provincial secretary of the department, in his briefing to the minister, apprised that the population of Sindh constituted 23 % of the total population of the country.

He said the ratio of contraceptive use in Sindh was 26.8 %, and the total fertility rate stood at 26.8 %.

“If the current growth rate of 2.2 % is not brought down, the population of the province in the next 31 years will be doubled to 60.88 million, compared to the current strength of 30.44 million”.

The minister directed the secretary to undertake viable measures for making effective population welfare centres in order to control the emerging critical situation of population explosion.—PPI