Just look at different roles of the clergy. In Pakistan the clergy is the ummah ki kasrat crowd, family planning is haram crowd. In Iran, the Ayatollah promotes family planning.
Take a look at the Bangladeshi and Irani miracle:-
As I've stated numerous times, Pakistan is losing the battle against population control. The decrease hasn't been as dramatic compared to the world and especially developing countries. The most amazing thing is that fertility rate rose from 3.9 to 4.1 between PDHS 2003-04 and PDHS 06-07.
Leaving war torn Afghanistan aside, let me compare us with other SAARC members and some other countries as well. When I say neighbouring countries, I am excluding Afghanistan. The indicators for us are not bright in any case.
Take population growth for instance. We’re pushing our total population to around 180 million now. Our stats say this country might explode with 350 million people within the next three decades. Yes, twice the number of people within the same land (in case your delusions of a Greater Pakistan do not come true). Our population growth rate stands at 2.14% per annum. And we can be sure that this is a cooked up number, fudged to make it look smaller than it actually is. Even then, Pakistan has the highest population growth rate amongst the neighbouring countries. We have failed to create a successful population control and family planning policy. The local mullah goes around saying that this is a “western conspiracy” to reduce the “size of the ummah” as if the size matters when it comes to conquering. Maldives, where you have to be a Muslim to be a citizen has a population growth rate of 1.42%, Bangladesh’s is 1.41% and the number stands a paltry 1.31% in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In Pakistan, Iodine deficiency is on the rise since the use of iodized salt has decreased thanks to government ineptitude and the local mullah’s sermon that iodized salt makes men sterile, yet another “western conspiracy”. Add to this the mullah’s sermon over the Polio Immunization and we’re one of the only four countries where Polio is endemic. We were the last ones when it came to smallpox as well.
Let’s take a look at the state of child health in our country. Infant mortality stands at 78 deaths per 1,000 briths. That means 1 out of every 14 infants dies before his first birthday. The under-five mortality rise is 94 deaths per 1,000 births. That means 1 out of every 10 children born die before their fifth birthday. This has not improved by any significant statistical value over the years. All SAARC members have the figures far, far better than ours. You say you’re better off than Bhutan? Their numbers are 45 and 65. In 1973, Infant Mortality stood at 155 in Pakistan and 144 in Maldives. Today it is 78 in Pakistan and 24 in Maldvies. The world average was 89 then and is 46 now. Meanwhile, we tested another bunch of long range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. Hail the mighty bomb !
Let’s take a look at fertility rate in the country. It stands at a mind boggling 4.1 children per women. Yet again the highest amongst countries in the region, in fact the nearest one is Nepal with 2.9 children per women. When did this number rise? It has been this worse since time immemorial. Bangladesh meanwhile seems to have understood the importance and in 1968 both had the same fertility rate of 6.88. Today it stands at 2.34, yeah women in Bangladesh today will have one third the number of children their mothers had. In our case, fertility has infact started to rise again from 3.9 to 4.1 between the PDHS 03-04 and PDHS 06-07. How’s that for the “ummah ki kasrat” crowd?
38% of children do not go to school and 2 million children between the ages of 5 and 9 work as child labourers, many in bonded labour. That includes the children who work in the homes of the upwardly mobile urban upper middle class members of this forum.
We're facing a crisis of population growth. It should have decreased to a growth rate of 1% by now, but it's way bigger. Fertility should have been 2.5 by now. It's above 4. These are worrying numbers. Especially keeping in mind the fact that productivity hasn't increased, especially agricultural productivity which has remained almost constant since the "green revolution".
Our population pyramid is like a triangle now. The demographic momentum has perhaps reached its peak and the country will explode with people unless and until stringent measures are taken. I find it highly offensive when a couple of my friends start complaining that television ads for
Saathi and family planning should be stopped, for them the "
family key saath bura lagta hai" factor is more important than the fact that we won't be able to feed well or sustain welfare for the universe of people that will occupy this country soon.
The MPA in KP Assembly was right. It's time to tax >2 children in the urban areas (as children have an economic value in rural areas).
Note : Bangladesh also used brutal forced sterilization in the early '80s which nobody should do.
