Jahangir's World Times First Comprehensive Magazine for students/teachers of competitive exams and general readers as well.
World Population Day is observed each year on July 11, to speed up the efforts aimed at reducing the ever-increasing human pressure on natural resources and minimizing the widening gap in the global standards of human development.
There is a huge difference in the standard of human development between the developing and developed countries of the world. As a result, life is luxurious in some parts of the world, while in some others, it is full of troubles and trials. People in the developed countries enjoy the highest standards of living, only because they strictly adhere to the principle of cutting the coat according to the cloth. In other words, they have increased their population in accordance with their resources. During the last 60 years, there has been 53 per cent increase in the population of developed countries, but the population of developing countries has risen by 234 per cent in the same period. As a natural consequence, buried under the burden of their rapidly increasing population, developing countries are sinking deeper and deeper into the quagmire of backwardness, and are unable to enjoy the excellent standards of living attained by the people of developed countries due to their small population. World Population Day is observed each year on July 11, to speed up the efforts aimed at reducing the ever-increasing human pressure on natural resources and minimising the widening gap in the global standards of human development. The aim of observing this day is to create awareness among the people of developing countries about holding back the tsunami of increasing population and to devise better strategies for tackling this problem. According to the international database of US Census Bureau, the population of the world which was 7,023,324,899 on July 1, 2012, is expected to reach 9306 million by the year 2050. It means that 32.50 per cent increase is expected in the global population in the coming 38 years. According to the UN Population Division’s World Population Prospects Report (the 2010 Revision), 96 per cent growth of world population by the year 2050 will be in the developing countries. At that time, 86 per cent of the world’s population will be living in developing countries, whereas till the year 2011, this figure was 82 per cent. In other words, in 2011, 5734 million people were living in developing countries, but their number will increase to 7994 million by the year 2050. According to the UN Population Division, the population of developed countries grew at the rate of 0.44 per cent between 1980 and 2011, but in the developing countries, the annual increase of population in the same period was 1.71 per cent. The population of the world grew at the annual rate of 1.45 per cent in those years. It has been predicted that from the year 2011 to 2050, the annual increase in population will be at the rate of 0.14 per cent, 0.83 per cent and 0.72 per cent, respectively. The world’s most populous country is China, whose population till 2011 was 1348 million. But by the year 2050, on account of its strict population control policies, it would become the world’s second most populous country. At that time, with a population of 1692 million, India would be the world’s most populous country. In 1950, Pakistan was the 14th most populous country in the world, but now, it is sixth in this list and will remain at the same position in 2050. During 1950-55, China recorded the largest population increase in the whole world. During this period, 11.518 million people were added to the Chinese population. The population of Pakistan increased by 0.713 million in the same period. In this way, on the basis of the overall growth of population, Pakistan stood at 11 among all countries of the world. With the addition of 16.914 million people, India ranked first in this list during 2005-10. In these five years, 2.990 million people were added to the population of Pakistan and in this way, the fourth largest increase in population in the whole world was recorded in Pakistan in this period. With the addition of 1.527 million people, Pakistan will be the world’s eighth largest country in this rating from the year 2045 to 2050. According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2011-12, the country’s population in 2011 was 177.03 million. It was 33.67 per cent more than 1998. With the further increase of 28.37 per cent, Pakistan’s population is likely to reach 227.26 million by the year 2025. According to the United Nations’ World Population Prospects Report (the 2010 Revision), Pakistan’s population would be doubled in the coming forty years. 3.53 million people are being annually added to the population of Pakistan. According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2010-11, Pakistan’s annual population growth rate which is 2.03 per cent is highest among all the seven countries of South Asia. The annual population growth rate of other South Asian countries is given below:
Number of children per woman, use of family planning methods by married women, death rate and average duration of life are the chief factors to be considered while analysing the population growth of a country. In Pakistan, the percentage of women using family planning methods is lowest among all South Asian countries. The percentage of married women using family planning techniques in different countries of South Asia, as mentioned in the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2010-11, is given below:
Bangladesh 56 per cent, Bhutan 31 per cent, India 56 per cent, Maldives 35 per cent, Nepal 48 per cent, Sri Lanka 68 per cent and Pakistan 27 per cent. In the same way, according to the recently released Economic Survey of Pakistan, among all South Asian countries, Pakistan has the highest number of children per woman. The number of children per woman in South Asian countries is as follows:
Pakistan 3.4, Bangladesh 2.2, Bhutan 2.3, India 2.5, Maldives 1.7, Nepal 2.6 and Sri Lanka 2.2. Besides this, according to the UN’s World Population Prospects Report (the 2010 revision), during the past sixty years, there has been 16.5 per thousand decrease in death rate in Pakistan. In 1950, death rate in Pakistan which was 23.8 per thousand, dropped to 7.3 per thousand by the year 2010. At the same time, the average duration of life in Pakistan has been steadily increasing. In 1950-55, it was 41.2 years. But in 2005-10, it was 64.6 years. It means that the average duration of life in Pakistan increased by 23.4 years in six decades.
In the light of the above-quoted facts, it can easily be inferred that population in Pakistan is gradually increasing, putting a great deal of pressure on the country’s economic social and natural resources. It is the fundamental right of every individual to get good education, health, food, employment and security and it is the primary duty of every government to provide these things to all individuals. But in view of the rapidly increasing population, a considerable amount of new economic resources are needed each year for the fulfilment of these basic human requirements. If a country’s economy is already under the tremendous pressure of crippling energy crisis, deteriorating law and order situation and soaring prices of raw materials, how can it be expected to generate more economic resources for the provision of basic human rights? The natural outcome of this dismal phenomenon is the high level of unemployment in the country, where a very large number of people remain without their fundamental rights and basic facilities of life. With every passing day, situation in the country gets worse with the ever-increasing population. The dream of real human progress remains unfulfilled and the gap of human development between developing and developed countries continues to widen. A similar situation is being faced by Pakistan, where in 2010-11 unemployment rate in the people at the age of 10 and above was 6 per cent according to the Labour Force
Survey. In rural areas, it was 4.7 per cent, while in urban areas, it was 8.8 per cent. According to the UNDP, in terms of human development, Pakistan stands at 145 in the list of 187 countries of the world. The Human Development Report 2011, prepared for the UNDP’s Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, contains a Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index, based on ten indicators relating to living standards, education and health. According to this index, 49.4 per cent people of Pakistan are facing multi-dimensional poverty and thus, have no access to good living standards and quality education and health. According to this latest index for measuring poverty, 58.5 per cent population of Balochistan, 58.5 per cent population of KPK, 56 per cent population of Sindh and 43.8 per cent population of Punjab is facing multi-dimensional poverty. Another 19.1 per cent people of Baluchistan, 14.2 per cent people of KPK, 10.2 per cent people of Punjab and 9.3 per cent people of Sind are vulnerable to multi-dimensional poverty. Thus, an additional 11 per cent of Pakistan’s population is vulnerable to multi-dimensional poverty. Overpopulation is the main factor responsible for the country’s backwardness. As long as we are unable to control our population in accordance with our available resources, we cannot translate into reality the dream of human development, poverty alleviation and economic progress. In this connection, each of us will have to take initiative at the individual level.
