‘Education, awareness play pivotal role in reaching the goal’

S.T. Bagalkoti of Karnatak University has said that education and creating awareness among people play a pivotal role in achieving population stabilisation.

Delivering a special guest lecture on ‘Population stabilisation — action ahead’, organised by the Department of Economics at Vijayanagar Sri Krishnadevaraya University here on Friday, Prof. Bagalkoti said that going by the current rate of population growth, the number would double in the next 50 years, making sustainable development unattainable.

Studies

Various studies had revealed that although family planning programmes were in place, the fertility rate could not be arrested, leading to an increase in the birth rate in highly populated States in the north, especially among the uneducated. In addition, infant mortality and maternal mortality rate was high, apart from malnourishment in these States.

“Child marriage is still common in some northern States and family planning methods are not adopted by a major chunk of the population, which has led to population growth. Even though the population has been stabilising gradually during the past decade owing to continuous efforts, much more needs to be done to achieve the goal,” he said.

According to Prof. Bagalkoti, the country could have saved crores of rupees if population stabilisation had been achieved as it had to spend a lot on providing education, health and other services, besides unemployment among the educated and high incidence of infant mortality. “The amount so saved could have been used for other development activities,” he said.

B.K. Tulisimala from Mysore University, who delivered a lecture on ‘Human development report — issues and challenges’, said that preparation of human development indices would enable the government to chalk out a detailed micro-level plan of action to achieve the ultimate goal of human development.

She said that collection and analysis of data, bridging the gap of available and non-available data, involvement of all stakeholders, proper monitoring and following a uniform methodology and indicators with same definitions were among the other issues to be looked into to come out with a scientific report.

“During the process of collection of data and preparation of the report, we can even pinpoint various aspects like the communities which were unable to get education and reasons that would help the government draw up plans to tackle the problems,” she said.

Manjappa Hosmane, Vice-Chancellor of the university, who presided, said that apart from the involvement of all stakeholders, it was essential to create awareness among people about the importance of human development and population stabilisation for the overall development of the country.

Basavaraj Benni, Head of the Department of Economics, welcomed the gathering.

In spite of family planning programmes, fertility rate hasn’t been arrested: professor

‘Child marriage is still common in some northern States’