The world population has grown tremendously over the past two thousand years. In 1999, the world population passed the six billion mark. Latest official current world population estimate, for mid-year 2009, is estimated at 6,790,062,216 and this figure is kept on increasing.
OVER POPULATION AND ITS CAUSES
“Large Number of people too few resources and too little space.”
Pakistan is the third world country and facing all kinds of problems, unemployment is at peak, lack of basic facilities, terrorism, uncertainty and much more. All these problems are the outcome of poverty and poverty is the outcome of over population. It is the fact that when the population will increase beyond the limited resources than problems is something natural. ‘Large population is not a blessing but it is a curse for the nation as well as for the country and its resources’ No progress is possible without controlling population.
THE MOST RECENT DATA OF POPULATION INCREASE IN PAKISTAN
0-14 years: 36.7% (male 33,037,943/female 31,092,572)
15-64 years: 59.1% (male 53,658,173/female 49,500,786)
65 years and over: 4.2% (male 3,495,350/female 3,793,734) (2009 est.)
Population Growth Rate:
1.555% (2009 est.)
Country comparison to the world: 83
25.89 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
7.21 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.)
Birth rate is much higher than the death rate because of the more number of young members of the society. Pakistan population is increasing and there is a fear that in the near future it will creates more problems because of the non serious attitude of controlling population in our country among the married couples and lack of awareness results in high population growth rate.
CAUSES OF OVER POPULATION IN PAKISTAN
Some of the causes of over population in our country are as follows and if these cause should be controlled than we can control the rising population which is becoming the cause of rising problems ands threaten to national security.
Lack of Education:
Illiteracy is another important cause of overpopulation. Those lacking education fail to understand the need to prevent excessive growth of population. They are unable to understand the harmful effects that overpopulation has. They are unaware of the ways to control population. Lack of family planning is commonly seen in the illiterate lot of the world. This is one of the major factors leading to overpopulation. Due to ignorance, they do not take to family planning measures, thus contributing to a rise in population. In Pakistan rural areas there is a trend of large number of families and due to lack of awareness and proper knowledge people go on producing more and more children. So this trend could be changed if education will be provided to all members of the society.
HIGH BIRTH RATE
Thanks to the new discoveries in nutritional science, we have been able to bring in increase in the fertility rates of human beings. Medicines of today can boost the reproductive rate in human beings. There are medicines and treatments, which can help in conception. Thus, science has led to an increase in birth rate. This is certainly a reason to be proud and happy but advances in medicine have also become a cause of overpopulation.
Polygamy means to have more than two wives at a time. Pakistan is a polygamous society and more than one marriage is acceptable and allowed in our religion. In rural areas polygamy is at the peak and its contributing in rise of population. So if we want to control population than polygamy should be discouraged.
DESIRE FOR MALE CHILD
We think that we are progressing and adopting new values and trends but this is really not true and this is a fact that parents prefer boys on girls and consider their son as their future asserts. Who can support them later in the life? So desire of male child is also the main reason of population growth in society like Pakistan. So if we want to control the rising population so we should consider boys and girls as same and value them. If this thing will be including in our thinking that girls also support their parents so this will discourage the practice of producing more and more children just for the desire of male child.
This is also the main reason of increase in population growth. As soon the girl grow parents start thinking for their marriages and when they find the reasonable proposal for them so they are in a hurry that they should get married and leave their education. Early marriages really contribute in rise in population growth and if we want to control it than early marriages should be avoided and education can help in delaying the age of marriage of the girls.
EFFECTS OF OVER POPULATION
The effects of over population are so many that you can not count them on your finger tips but the thing if that if we really want to progress than we have to control the limited size of the family and this will be in interest of all of us.
OVER POPULATION LEADS TO POVERTY.
PROPER CARE OF CHILDREN IN LIMITED RESOURCES
INCREASE IN CRIME BECAUSE OF LACK OF RESOURCES
And many more the effects of over population are adverse and they keep on increasing due to urbanization and industrialization. Large families lead to problems, problems and problems and they can only be controlled if people start planning their families according to the resources.
STEPS FOR CONTROLLING OVER POPULATION
Over population can be controlled but for the people need awareness and support of religious leaders because in majority of the illiterate families they considered over population as blessing, and controlling method of population as sin because of religious restrictions. But Allah hasn’t say that go on producing children beyond your resources and then throw their children like animals without fulfilling their needs and responsibilities. What I have witness that in poor families there is a trend of larger families and their children are the most affected one because they are far away from basic needs and necessities of life.
Some of the points of controlling over population are as under
-To avoid joint family system because in this system financial burden is shared by all the earning members and in this way families can not control their family size.
-Media can play an important role in discouraging large family size norms by giving public service messages and highlighting the importance of small family size.
-Importance and advantages of small family size should be promoted.
-Population control method should be promoted in married couple.
-Lady health worker should be increased in the rural areas to awrae the women about the concequences of larger families.
Hence, it is concluded that over population is the threat for the stability and strengthening of any nation. In the result inflation time larger families are not a blessing but a curse. So steps should be taken to aware the people that if the families will be small than they can enjoy their lives with all the facilities and the next coming generation will be healthy and organized due to the proper attention of parents. Education should be promoted in small villages and town. Importance and advantages of small family should be promoted in the newly married couples and the girls who are about to get married, because women health is also been affected with more children. So for a healthy family, healthy mother and progressive society population control is the most important aspect and