Editorial
Handling the population issue
Investing in women to yield rich dividends
Investing in women as a way of advancing the cause of national development looks like an eminently sensible idea. And that is what the observance of World Population Day this year has been all about. There can hardly be any arguing with the fact that a rising population threatens to put at risk all strategies related to economic progress in the country; and this despite a declining population growth of 1.39 per cent at the present time. And in spite of the rate of reproductivity now being 2.7 per cent as compared to 6.3 per cent in 1971, there are some rather obvious reasons why the population issue needs to be handled in a more streamlined manner. Foremost among them is the question of how men more than women are dealing with the population control programme at the various tiers of society. For instance, it has been suggested that of the 55.8 per cent of those who employ family planning methods, a meagre 5.2 per cent happen to be men. In other words, the apathy of men toward family planning as opposed to the greater sense of awareness of the issue on the part of women is a stark reality.
It is here that the idea of women's education buttressing the overall programme of population control, indeed turning population into a productive factor in societal life gains significance. Both the theme of investing in women as well as the principle of girl's education being a weapon against poverty (the latter being the theme of the United Nations Association of Bangladesh) only add greater weight to the role women can play in this respect. Over the past many years, women have made quite considerable strides in education and have made remarkable inroads in various employment sectors in the country. There can be no denying such a reality. And yet there cannot be room for complacence here, for the simple reason that there are still very large areas where the message of population control needs to reach. We are especially referring to rural regions here where a conspicuous decline in medical facilities, a near absence of instruction on family planning, et cetera, have lately proved to be worrying. When the health minister himself speaks of a need to beef up the population control programme in such regions as Sylhet and Chittagong and also in chars, slums and haor areas, the question of what remains to be done becomes clearer.
All of this takes us back to thoughts of an expansion in women's education. The focus of such expansion must be in the rural regions where, for all our delight in a decline in gender discrimination, powerful pockets of male chauvinism remain to keep women circumscribed in their activities. There is no question that educating women is a first step toward empowering them at various levels of society and politics. In its turn, empowerment leads to a bigger sense of responsibility through giving women a decision-making role in the family. The result is an improvement in living standards for all.
All of the above are of course fine as sentiments. What truly needs to be done is for these ideas to be transformed from platitudes into tangible realities.
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