PESHAWAR, Dec 23: Speakers at a workshop here have urged the government to devise and implement population control policies in collaboration with the community, to check the population rate of the country and meeting the challenges posed by it.
“The policy-makers are required to take up the population as a core basis for any future development, because population and socio-economic development are closely interdependent,” said Dr Mohsin Syed Khan, adviser to the United Nation Population Fund, at the two-day workshop titled “Population, Development & Pakistan” organised jointly by the United Nation body and the Peshawar Press Club at a local hotel on Monday.
According to him, meagre allocation of resources to the social sector resulted in poverty, illiteracy, ill-health of the people, which need to be increased in order to meet the challenges emanating from the population rate which was increasing at an alarming rate of 2.1 per cent annually.
Every year, 3.1 million new births took place, if left unchecked the population would become double from the present population of 14.6 million by 2035, he said, adding that the figure also included the persons over 65 and between 14-19 years of age, who depended entirely on their families.
He said out of 350 mother died in every 100,000 births, 49 per cent didn’t receive antenatal care, only 18 per cent births were attended by trained health workers and 76 per cent deliveries took place at homes.
According to him, only 52 per cent children were vaccinated and 85 per cent out of 100,000 newborns died before celebrating their first birthday. Another 25 per cent suffered from low birth weight, he said, adding that the adult literacy rate was 50.5 per cent, including 63 per cent for male and 37 per cent for female.
Mr Karl Kulessa, a UNPF representative said that the population growth was not a new phenomenon for Pakistan and the people should be sensitised, besides adopting contraceptive methods to put brakes on population.
He said there was also a need to educate them regarding venereal diseases, personal hygiene and abuse of intravenous injection to save them from the potential risk of being infected with HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.