MITHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Gyanchand, MNA Dr Mahesh Kumar Malani and MPA Fakeer Mohammed Bilalani from Tharparkar on Tuesday urged Tharis to help themselves by controlling their own population in order to meet the challenge of food and water scarcity in the region.

Speaking at a gathering organised by the population welfare department in the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Cultural Complex in Mithi, the lawmakers, other local party leaders and officials of the department shared their views with local people on increasing population of the region, drastically deficient in basic amenities. They said early marriages and tendency of having more and more children were the main causes of the deficiency.

They advised Tharis to go for population planning, using contraceptives and avoid early marriages.

A result-oriented massive aware­ness campaign was essentially required to be launched to control Thar’s population, they stressed. MNA Malani observed it was very unfortunate that the population welfare department could cover only 42 per cent of the targeted area in disseminating awareness and providing products to families with the aim of controlling births.

Recruitment of an adequate number of workers was needed to achieve the goal, he said.

Although the provincial government’s step to enact the law against early marriages was appreciable, “we have a long way to go to guide people about the modern methods of controlling the birth rate in Thar,” said Dr Malani.

He urged the local government workers, NGO activists, religious scholars, teachers and other people to play their role in saving the future generation of Thar from drought and climate change impacts.

Senator Gyanchand, who also heads PPP’s Thar chapter, was of the view that proper education and guidance to Tharis could help achieve desired results in efforts towards birth control and child marriage prevention.

MPA Bilalani urged officials of the departments concerned to launch massive awareness drive in Thar in this regard and also to address the mess caused by multiple factors.

Population welfare department’s technical adviser Dr Talib Lashari said he would take up recommendations of the lawmakers and other stakeholders with the higher authorities so that a strategy could be devised to effectively control population growth in the Thar region.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2018