KARACHI: Though at the heart of every challenge Pakistan faces today, be it water crisis, energy shortages, rising unemployment and poverty, or even climate change, the issue of high population growth remains neglected.

This official/political apathy needs to end, if the country is to progress. The first step during this election time means that political parties must take ownership of this important issue, raise it at public forums and make it part of their manifestos.

These points were highlighted at a consultative meeting held on Wednesday to elicit opinion from experts including professionals from advertising agencies on a new narrative on family planning.

It was organised by Javed Jabbar, former information minister and senior independent adviser on population issues, who has been a part of many initiatives related to social development and environment.

Prior to the discussion, a presentation was shared with the audience, highlighting that the issue of high population growth affecting Pakistan was at the centre of every challenge it faced today and, in fact, held back its progress.

According to the data presented in the meeting, population of Pakistan has jumped from 34 million in 1951 to over 208 million in 2017. The country needs 1.3m new jobs every year and annually four to five million people are added to its population, which is equal to the total population of New Zealand.

“One important sector in this respect is health. Pakistan’s maternal and infant mortality rates are the highest within the South Asian region. Thirty women die daily in Pakistan due to pregnancy-related complications. One important tool to change this grim situation is to help couples get access to family planning services,” he said.

Elaborating further, he observed that studies had shown that there was a strong desire amongst couples to restrict family size and avoid unintended pregnancies but they lacked access to family planning services.

“Pakistan’s contraceptive prevalence rate is only 35 per cent whereas the unmet need for contraception is 20pc,” he said.

He appreciated Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal that had recently included the subject of balancing resources with population size in its election manifesto, the first political party to do so.

Need for integration

Citing examples of various countries, experts pointed out that success on the front of population management couldn’t be achieved unless there was sustained political commitment as demonstrated in Bangladesh, a country which successfully managed its population that now stood at 165m.

In case of Pakistan, they said, integration of facilities was very important and the government needed to provide family planning services at all its primary healthcare centres.

The failure on this front, it was pointed out, might also indicate the need for shifting from the narrative of ‘birth spacing’ to something more convincing, especially for the younger generation.

At this stage, the forum opened for discussion and participants shared their views on how they saw this issue and whether there was indeed a need for a new narrative.

Sharing her views, media person Uzma Alkarim said that perhaps the past advertising campaign on family planning, Bache do hi ache, needed to be revived as it was popular and still fresh in people’s minds.

“We need to have a narrative which appeals to public mind and carries influence,” she said, suggesting that production of films on such issues could also help highlighting the issue.

Yawar Iqbal, executive creative director at a private company, was of the opinion that there was a need for a narrative in family planning where women were given conspicuous role to play. Women should be at the heart of family planning, he said.

The role of religious scholars couldn’t be ignored and that should be taken on board regarding family planning along with all the stakeholders, it was said.

There was consensus that that the message on family planning should be simple, convincing and constitute a theme that people could easily relate to.

Population experts Dr Ali Mir and Dr Jamil Ahmed Chaudhary, Durriya Kazi, head of Karachi University’s department of visual studies, Umair Kazi and Taimur Tajik specialising in advertising also participated in the discussion.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2018