Population Growth is a Security Issue for Pakistan
August 26, 2010
Population Affecting Healthy Living: Pakistan was a
country of 34 million people in 1951, including thethen
East Pakistan and now Bangladesh. By 2000, the
population had risen to 144 million. Pakistan added 110
million Pakistanis in just four decades, and despite the
recent decline in the rate of population growth from 3.2
percent to 2.1 percent, Pakistan is expected to have a
population size of 224 – 226 million by 2020 and by 2025,
population is estimated at a staggering 333 million. From
1981 to 1998, the rate of population growth was 2.69
percent criss-crossing all the way to 3.2 percent in 2002. At
present, there are confirmed estimates that 70 percent of
the Pakistani population is living either under, on or just
above the poverty line and make two or less dollars a day.
Forth-nine percent of the population is living absolutely
below the poverty line. According to a Population Welfare
study, “the impact of population growth on poverty is
obvious, since poorer families, especially women
and marginalized groups bear the burden of a large number
of children with much fewer resources further adding to the
spiral of poverty and deterioration in the status of women.”
The same study established that the contraceptive
prevalence is 30 percent which is nearly 120 percent lesser
than the required standard to help reduce Pakistan’s
population growth to an “acceptable level” of 1.2 percent.
Because of repeated population explosions, Pakistan is
faced with serious a socio-economic and a political crises.
Take the housing sector, as an example. Pakistan has
nearly 7 persons per housing unit as opposed to 3.5 persons
per housing unit in the developed world. At an average,
3.13 persons share a single room per housing
unit. Pakistan also has one of the highest “single room
accommodation” average in the world with 38.11 percent
followed by two rooms housing units at 30.54 percent.
Housing units that have five or more rooms are less than 7
percent. Nearly 46 percent of the total housing is informal
or “kucha” (mud) housing with cement and brick housing
ratio at 54.64 percent. Around 32 percent of all families
in Pakistan have ten or more people living in one unit.
Nearly 51 percent of the total housing units do not have
built-in toilets.
Literacy-Population Connection: In spite of the recent
media boom in Pakistan, total access to TV is 35.32
percent followed by radio at 23.94 percent and newspapers
at 21.20 percent. No wonder a whole host of government
initiatives to control population growth have failed to
achieve much. With an established rate of literacy at 43.92
percent, government finds it extremely hard to evolve and
develop campaigns and mechanisms to convey the critical
nature of the problem that population growth is. These
campaigns then also are faced with fierce resistance from a
dominant part of religious circles who not only
oppose population control but also claim that any
contraceptive practice is against the will of God. Their
stance is not helping Pakistan evolve into a vibrant socialwelfare
democratic state that it was originally set out to be.
State of Affairs: Even with a population of nearly 170
million in 2008, the State is finding it very hard to provide
its citizens with a healthy living environment and other
basic amenities of life. Shortage of electricity, water and
wheat flour has become serious challenges and things are
bound to deteriorate further particularly if and when
population reaches 333 million in 2025. In a recent study
of World Population Council, it was found
that China’s one-child policy had prevented the births of
nearly 400 million children over the past three decades.
The prevention of birth of every child saved the state 1,200
dollars annually and helped create a balance between
resources and consumption. In Pakistan, unemployment
continues to be rampant; 25 percent as of Sept 30, 2008.
Then there’s the power crisis, gas, water shortages,
increased diseases, lack of medical facilities, security,
terrorism and law and order crisis. Our policy makers must
seriously ponder about the implications of an unplanned
population growth. Right now, Pakistan has 872
government hospitals and 9,892 basic health units and they
are all heavily burdened, unable to cope with the current
population.
Our future is our children but 31 percent of our children
under the age of 5 are suffering from severe
malnutrition. Mortality rate per 1,000 is 78 (worse than
some of the poorest African countries). Imagine; a mere
4.38 percent Pakistanis are university graduates with a
paltry 1.58 percent holding a master’s degree. The
technical corps among the educated is 0.41 percent. Only
17.29 percent of the school-going population qualifies the
“matriculation” (10 years of education) examination and
this figure further shrinks to just 6.56 percent qualifying as
“intermediates” (12 years of education).
Education or Arsenal: Pakistan’s future is nothing short
of a Himalayan challenge. The government and the state
machinery can only overcome these challenges by turning
the country into a progressive and a forward looking state
and that would only be possible if we begin investing in
education and health. The State needs to re-define its
priorities from a defense focus to a welfare orientation.
PS: According to estimates, nearly 5.5 billion people in
the world live in underdeveloped nations while the
developed nations’ population is 1.5 billion. India, with
an expected population base of 1.7 billion by 2050, will
be the largest country on the face of the planet.
Source: CRSS Pakistan