Social and cultural practices feeding into rapid population growth
While analyzing the population growth issue in Bangladesh, one must not fail to note the very important underlying cultural, social and
religious practices that encourage the reckless growth. Statistics show that 60 per cent of the females in the country become mothers by the maximum age of 19 when their fertility remain at a peak as a consequence of the culture of marrying at premature age . They give birth to a number
of children even as they remain teenagers
Md Amin Ibrahim
A special report released by the UNFPA--sometime ago --revealed that Bangladeshs population is rising rather fast for comfort. The population of Bangladesh, thus, is realistically projected to rise to 170.2 million as early as 2020 at the current rate of its growth. Surely, such a bigger population to be supported by the limited means for its sustenance could create great multi-faceted stresses on the economy, social and political stability and the environment.
Government can be blamed for not being able to put a leash on population growth. But population growth is fuelled as much by biological urges as social and cultural practices. Big families used to be the part of the social scene at one time even in todays developed countries with their present limited population.
Nobody or the governments in those countries had spread so much of information or the gospels of planned parenthood to the people of those countries . The restraint gradually occurred automatically in those countries with their people becoming wiser on their own and population growth there started falling.
Indeed it is not really the governments job to peep into every home having fertile couples and tell them to have less sex or sex with controls to limit births. Or, the poverty factor that seeks to explain that the poor cannot even buy condoms or take birth control pills inexpensively that lead to population surge, is also not a very tenable explanation in our context. For even birth control materials are within the purchasing power of the poor in most cases in Bangladesh these days. The real factor why such a high birth rate exists involves really a sense of the highest irresponsibility or a very casual approach to an issue that so much concern their own and national well-being among some 55.8 fertile couples in the country who still do not practice any form of birth controls.
There was a time when people in our neighbourhood --the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Thais, the Singaporeans, etc. -- were also high breeders . But gradually with urbanization and even with nobody breathing down their neck to adopt family planning, people in these countries started realizing the merit of having smaller families. Population growth started falling appreciably in these countries from the greater awareness of the people than any other factor. Today, our northern and south east Asian neighbours are benefiting from the slowed down population growth. Population growth has fallen drastically all across Asia with the exception of south Asia and Bangladesh in particular.
There are other aspects of modernization or catching up that this writer noted among our Asian neighbours. For instance, like in Bangladesh there are also rickshaws and rickshaw pullers in China and the south east Asian countries. Like in Bangladesh, they too used to wear lungis or traditional gears while operating their rickshaws. But wearing half pants or short trousers can be more convenient than the traditional wears like lungis which may be comforting as home wear but tends to slip off while pedaling.
So, the rickshaw pullers have all but given up wearing traditional dresses while pedaling the rickshaws. But in Bangladesh the pullers are overwhelmingly and stubbornly clinging on to wearing the lungis despite the inconvenience. Suggesting to them that they should change their ways, may invite their hateful response.
Going back to the population growth issue, one must not fail to note also the very important underlying social, religious and cultural practices that encourage the growth. On the one hand, we have more than fifty per cent of the couples with reproductive abilities not practicing family planning.
On the other hand, any study would probably reveal that the majority of the couples are very young ones. Available statistics show that 60 per cent of the females in the country become mothers by the age of 19 when their fertility remain at a peak .
They give birth to a number of children even as they remain teenagers. This alone should explain why it is proving to be so difficult to control the population boom. Religious and cultural practices are also feeding into this trend specially in the countryside where the greatest number of the people are concentrated.
But someone should start belling the cat. Somehow through greater activism of social organizations, NGOs and others this fatal trend of early marriage must be checked firmly. Even legislation need to be considered as a deterrent. The subject needs to be brought sharply into focus or in the national limelight.
It is easy to underestimate the present situation in respect of our population growth by suggesting that the rapidly bulging young population of Bangladesh will form, sooner than later, a bigger workforce who would be counted as assets for the country in terms of greater production and output. Some economists call this the demographic dividends.
But such a dividend in our situation is a big unknown or question mark because the teeming millions of emaciated teenagers with little education or training, poor health and other personal inadequacies would more likely be considered as total liabilities than assets. They are more likely to overwhelm the system at a future date with the various existential demands they would be making on the system as a whole.
The writer is a researcher on developmental issues
