Full House: Packed to the hilt Pakistan

Full House: Packed to the hilt Pakistan

Pakistan is a country of 177,540,000 people and is the 6^th largest country in the world in terms of population. It is quite an achievement to be at the challenging 6^th position considering the total area our country occupies is 796,095 square kilometres. The fast growing population is one of the biggest challenges that the coming generations will have to face.

Pakistan is at 36^th position according to the total area occupied within its borders and it is already contributing the 2.55% to the total world’s population. The country itself is surrounded by many issues including shortage of power supply, low per capita income, poverty, illiteracy and many more.  One issue that is not considered as seriously as it should is the fear of over populating the country.

The term overpopulation is defined as, “A condition where an organism’s numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat.” There has been a great increase in the number of world’s population in the recent 50 years. The main reason behind that significant increase has been the medical advancements and the farming productivity.

Head of biology at the University College London, Steve Jones shared his thoughts on the major increase in the world’s population. He said, “Humans are 10,000 times more common than we should be, according to the rules of the animal kingdom, and we have agriculture to thank for that. Without farming, the world population would probably have reached half a million by now.”

Pakistan is certainly a developing country and it has the capacity to fight with the most of the social issues. Many of the problems found in our society today are minor and the fast growing literacy rate is an indication that the light at the end of the tunnel is pretty close. However, even if all the basic issues of the society are resolved with the passage of time, population is a disease that does not have a cure as of now.

The growth rate of Pakistan is pretty low as compare to the increase in population. Most of the families living in the rural areas of the country are unaware of the fact that fast growth increase can actually be brutal. Family planning has also faced strong opposition in those areas as it is believed that artificial contraceptives are against nature and Islam. The higher authorities have completely failed to communicate the benefits of the family planning in the rural areas.

Saeeda Waheed founded ‘The Family Planning Association’ (FPAP) also known as “Rahnuma” in 1953 but could not really perform as freely. The organisation faced strong opposition from the society who had no idea what Saeeda had in mind. Pakistan was the 13^th most populous country in 1950 and was one of the first Asian countries to start the family planning programme. According to the United Nations, Pakistan will be at fifth spot at the world population with 292 million people by the end of 2020.

It is expected that Pakistan will become the largest Muslim country in the world by overtaking Indonesia in 2030. The question however remains, whether there will be enough resources for the new comers, how many of the new born babies will see a school in their life. How many of them will be able to have the basic necessities of life. Last but not the least how many of the new born will be given the opportunity to become leaders of tomorrow.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=338

Posted by Ahmed Babar on Oct 17 2011. Filed under Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry