



THE government's decision to formulate a new population policy, emulating China's single-child families by 2015, to avoid a serious socio-economic debacle due to ever-increasing population is an eminently sensible one. According to the draft policy, couples having only one child will be given preference in all state facilities, including the government's assistance during admission to educational institutions.

China implemented the "one child per couple" policy in 1979, which was the most aggressive family planning policy in modern times. It was aimed at boosting economic development, optimising use of resources and improving welfare of the people. At the outset, most couple had, on average 2.75 children. But this figure had fallen to 1.72 by 2006.

The draft policy, which is reported to be in the final stage with the health and family welfare ministry, wishes to engage 20 other ministries for its implementation. The health ministry will lead the population control program while the education ministry is likely to include family planning issues in the academic curriculum, while the religious affairs ministry may ask the religious leaders to speak for family planning and the information ministry would direct the media for wide publicity of the program.

A National Population Council (NPC), headed by the prime minister, has already been formed to formulate the policy. The council includes the ministers and secretaries concerned, divisional chiefs, heads of leading NGOs, population experts, sociologists and public health experts.

Bangladesh is not on the right track as far as its population growth is concerned. More than 150 million people are virtually elbowing one another in about 55 thousand square miles. It is the most densely populated country in the world, where more than 1,100 people on average live in 1 sq km. The country will not be able to sustain such a huge population even with faster economic development.

Population growth poses a major social, economic and political challenge to the government, and is a barrier to all socio-economic progress including healthcare, education, accommodation and employment.

Things are growing worse with massive migration of rural people to cities and towns in search of jobs as the rural economy is unable to provide them with the bare necessities of life.

China had to face a series of unwanted events. The major problem among Chinese couples was the tradition in which all families must have a boy to carry on the family name. As there is a preference for boys in Bangladesh too, tighter control on population would that mean more and more female infants would be eliminated before they were born.

The one child policy was enforced in China by imposition of steep penalties in the form of "social compensation fee" for having a second child. This was possible as a communist government was in power. Recent surveys among young urban Chinese show many of them prefer to have only one child because of the cost of raising children and their busy new lifestyles.

Health Minister A.F.M. Ruhul Haque told the Parliament on January 17 that the government was planning to offer various facilities to parents who had only one child. The government will give a reception to the parents of one child to encourage people to have one child. Only reception is not likely to allure couples belonging to the poor and uneducated section of the society to have one child.

In China those who volunteer to have one child are awarded a Certificate of Honour for Single Child Parent. The Bangladesh government may seriously think of issuing Social Security Cards to the parents of single child to assure them free treatment in public hospitals, free journey by public transports, social security in old age and stipend for education of the child. Millions of couples in Bangladesh are compelled to bank on more children for old age support.

The first population policy was formulated in 1976, which identified the population problem as the number one national problem. Fertility rates declined significantly and the country achieved remarkable success in family planning after implementation of the policy. The population control program is now faltering, and the fatal effects are being palpably felt everywhere in the country.

The new population policy should focus on improving the living conditions of the overwhelming masses in rural areas, and providing them productive employment and other essential inputs to help them get out of their chronic poverty. It must also contain a provision to prevent early marriage and premature pregnancy. The draft policy should be made available to the public for evaluation and expert opinion.

The population boom in Bangladesh is like a time-bomb waiting to explode sooner than one realises unless drastic actions are taken to arrest it. Extreme overpopulation warrants an extreme measures like the single-child policy to save the country from demographic disaster. But the implementation of such a policy in a country like Bangladesh is a gigantic task.

Given Bangladesh's social and religious traditions, the government must put in place the right kind of action plans supported by dedicated and devoted field workers. Motivational door-to-door campaigns and service delivery at the field level would be more helpful in attaining the goal of population control than the city-based media campaigns.

As the country cannot afford to bear such a demographic burden, the government should seriously consider setting up a separate ministry fully capable of delivering the goods. Any dilly-dally in doing so will be literally dangerous for the nation.

A. N. M. Nurul Haque is a columnist of The Daily Star.