Overpopulation is considered as an undesirable condition in which the number of inhabitants exceeds the carrying capacity of them. The world population is exceeding 7.5 billion people but the resources limitations and environmental degradation are becoming more apparent and noticeable. According to the UN’s report, almost 361,000 people are added to the planet daily. The population of our planet has grown exponentially in the last 200 years with the rate of 1.9 percent per year. If the same rate is sustained till 2600, individuals will be standing literally shoulder to shoulder.
There are a number of problems that the world is facing which include environmental degradation, overpopulation, expatriates and refugees, violence, bombing and terrorism, narcotics, world crime movements, organised crimes and other white collar crimes as well that do not stop at a nation’s border. But these problems have become serious for third world countries. Pakistan is also considered as a third world country and it has been facing all these challenges at large. Overpopulation is the worst among all. This is really perplexing dilemma for the state.
Pakistan is a country which is still weak socially, political and economically and it has been facing many challenges from the day of its inception. Overpopulation is one of the most serious challenges which is as threatening as terrorism. Pakistan has 2.63 percent of the world’s population and ranks 6th in the list of high population countries in the world. The number of births per day in Pakistan is 16,228 and number of deaths is 4110. It means that a baby is born every seven seconds in Pakistan.
It is the 21st century and the world has become more technological and globalized. The overpopulation in Pakistan can take it away from advancement and progress in the world. No doubt that over population ultimately leads to overexploitation, frustration, and starvation. There is a famous proverb that ‘two is a company and three is a crowd’. It is quite common in Pakistan to have more than four children.
In our country, motherhood is considered a requirement rather than a choice. This is one of the factors of over population in Pakistan. Once Osho said, “If a man loves a woman, then the population of the world wouldn’t be as much as it is today”.
Pakistan has 2.63 percent of the world’s population and ranks 6th in the list of high population countries in the world. The number of births per day in Pakistan is 16,228 and number of deaths is 4110. It means that a baby is born every seven seconds in Pakistan
Men don’t experience and even think about the difficulties and complications of pregnancy. So they never care about the health of the women. There are still many women who spend almost their whole lives in pregnancy. This is cruelty against humanity. Another key factor for over population in Pakistan is ‘Allah the Raaziq’. No doubt Allah is the ‘raaziq’ but you know 25,000 people die every day in the world due to food deficit or hunger. So Allah has set the rules for social conduct and order, so obey them and work for the betterment of humanity rather than working to create problems for others.
Either Pakistan decides to manage its own numbers or nature will help us to do it in the form of destruction, deafening ecosystem, famine, starvation, thirst, dryness, climate, chaos, opportunistic diseases, plagues, and the wars over deteriorating and diminishing resources that finally cut us down to size.
Nuclear warfare is a great danger but population explosion is a greater danger for the survival of human beings. This is important to explicate that instead of monitoring, supervising and controlling the environment for the assistance and benefit of the population, we must concentrate to control the population to ensure the survival and endurance of this environment. If Pakistan does not bring an end to the population growth with justice, compassion and empathy, it will obviously be done by nature brutally and without pity.
Thank you Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar that you raised your voice against this challenge. The previous governments didn’t bother with this menace and always put the issue in aside because their objectives were never visionary and strategic. The recent government has not set the priority to deal with this fatal disease. They have also some other concerns and issues. This is a request to the current government to please start programs and projects to control the population seriously otherwise all efforts to become prosperous will be in vain.
The following are the recommendations for the government to defuse the population bomb; firstly, the government should focus on two children legislation and those who violate it, they will have to pay taxes accordingly. Age of marriage for both male and female should be revised. The female minimum age must be 22 years and male minimum age must be 25 years. Moreover, lessons or chapters on overpopulation and population control should be part of the syllabus from class one till college and universities. All those policies through which parents are rewarded economically and financially based on the number of children they have, need to be stopped. Provide access to safe and secure contraceptive options for both male and female and also legalize abortions. Women should be empowered to take the decision about conceiving a child or not, and lastly, family planning should start from grassroots level and it must be strategic and visionary.
The writer is PhD Scholar, Media and Crime and author of different books on International Relations, Criminology and Gender Studies. He can be reached at [email protected]
Published in Daily Times, December 7th 2018.