Daily Times

Two facts should suffice to show how Pakistan’s population has far outstripped its capacity to care for it. Back in 1951, the population of the then West Pakistan was around 33 million but it currently stands at over 200 million. Meanwhile, only 16 of 41 indicators under the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were met by Pakistan.

A seminar recently organised by a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Umerkot emphasised how the population bomb could become a catastrophic menace to Pakistan over the coming years without having achieved the goals mentioned in the MDGs. The seminar highlighted how this failure would affect public health, the environment and basic quality of life in Pakistan.

Family planning initiatives taken by the government since the 1990s weren’t implemented effectively, especially in rural areas. Recently, while a census team visited Quetta’s outskirts, they found a household that had 36 children to be registered. Factors related to religion, labour, illiteracy and patriarchal thoughts play a key role in the uncontrolled increase in the population.

The government, in collaboration with the relevant NGOs, needs to launch a widespread rural campaign focused on family planning, as part of efforts to provide educational and health services. It could also seek assistance from the Care Foundation, which has already adopted some 800 schools where underprivileged children are provided a fine education.

Critically, the ongoing census would be able to provide information on which areas require a special focus.

Mere infrastructural development just won’t do, unfortunately. *