The population challenge

Thomas L Friedman has written a book in which he says: “In the world that is getting hot, flat and crowded, the task of creating the tools, systems, energy resources, and ethics that will allow the planet to grow in cleaner, more sustainable ways, is going to be the biggest challenge of our lifetime…Rapid population growth have (sic) converged in a way that could make our planet dangerously unstable.”

People in Pakistan, and indeed worldwide, deserve food, water, shelter and adequate facilities for education and health. Faced with the approaching storm of population growth combined with climate change – and despite the best intentions of the state and government – there is a real possibility that they may not be able to get them. This is why the recent symposium in Islamabad on population was timely. Yet the unfortunate aspect is that suggestions and lofty promises made in such gatherings in the past are never implemented.

Maulana Tariq Jamil, who was one of the speakers, said that the biggest issues in controlling population growth are lack of awareness and ignorance, combined with social pressure amongst the poor, especially in the rural areas of Pakistan. The mentality, according to the Maulana, of people in villages is that “the more the children, the better” because these children are considered as increasing family workforce (rather than a liability) while the health of the woman is irrelevant. Many even consider birth control to be contrary to Islamic injunctions.

This government owes it to the country to make population control its priority and change this mindset. What should it do? The world has tried different models to control birth rates. China succeeded to quite some extent through the forced one-child, one-family rule. They could do so because it was an authoritarian regime. India tried the concept of mandatory sterilisation to stop large families during Indira Gandhi’s government. This proved to be a disaster. Bangladesh adopted the Matlab system and used mullahs for this programme to be acceptable

to the population. They had limited success.

But it is Iran’s population control measures which have proved to be most humane and effective. Rural Iran has experienced world history’s most rapid reduction in birth rates (total fertility declined from 6.5 in 1996 to 1.6 births for women in 2012). The most amazing was the speed with which all this was achieved (the target set to be met by 2011 was already met 11 years earlier by 2000). This government could do well to study and follow the Iranian model.

How did then Iran achieve this? First of all, Iran’s programme was led by its clergy, and the catalyst for this was the fatwa issued by Imam Khomeini, followed by other high-ranking clerics stating that: contraception was “not inconsistent with Islamic tenets as long as it did not jeopardise the health of the couple, and was used with the informed consent of the husband.”

This was immediately followed by creation of a comprehensive health network in which government resources were pumped in for the establishment of human and infrastructure resources. Educated women were hired, trained and employed as health workers to provide active service delivery in villages. “If a married woman of reproductive age, for example, missed the chance to go to a local health house at least once a year, a health worker would seek her out, update her information in a database that contained health information for every single married woman aged 15 to 49, and provide her with required services.”

Alongside that, the Iranian government also concentrated on empowerment of women, realising that without this, no policy for population control could succeed. The effect of this government initiative is obvious and today in public universities in Iran, women students outnumber men – 65 percent to 35 percent. The health houses and family planning programmes in villages were trained to help empower women by changing historical norms. Iran’s HNS, a government service devoted to women, “lent the weight of authority to the changing social acceptability of rural women’s role within the family structure and broader society as one that was more equal to men.” Overall, Iran offered family planning to 90 percent of its rural citizens.

Iran and Pakistan share a similar cultural background. Our government has a ready-made programme which can be followed, if necessary, with some tweaking and further improvements. To start with, the entire clergy must be brought together to break the myth that contraception and health control is un-Islamic. (Of course, in Muslim countries religion must be addressed carefully lest there is a backlash). At the same time, Pakistan needs to invest in health infrastructure and provide sustainable family programming plans, as was done in Iran.

The key to the success of Iran’s programme was the effective way in which the information about the population problem and the government’s policy was communicated to the people. In line with this principle, Pakistan too must therefore concentrate on running a most effective nationwide awareness campaign on radio and TV in Urdu and in local languages, make advertisements by printing quotes and labels everywhere, including on items like rice sacks and banners, reaching out to places visited by rural people, like festivals, carnivals, courts and even prisons. And of course one must not forget the most effective tool in the arsenal and something which is part of our culture and has been effectively used in the past – the theatre, which is not only a source of entertainment but also offers a way to connect with the people.

There can be no better and effective way to transfer the message of population control amongst people then by creating drama through stage performances. A message conveyed directly creates resistance, while one given subtly and in an indirect way through a play, has the greatest impact. The people that need to be targeted often cannot read and write, but are always ready to hear the message through storytelling.

In this way, a huge platform can be raised to change the mindset of the people.

Malthus, who some call the ‘prophet’ who warned us of the impending disaster of population control, and was an Englishman born in Surrey, in his book ‘An Essay of the Principle of Population’ argued two hundred years back that “Human population will increase inexorably until it is halted by misery and vice.” Sir David Attenborough, one of the most well-known naturalists living today, in his lecture while talking about Malthus said: “The fundamental truth that Malthus proclaimed remains the truth. There cannot be more people on this earth that can be fed.”

However much investment is made in controlling water scarcity or building up education and health infrastructure, it will never be sufficient against the rising tide of population. If a population policy is not developed, announced and given priority, economic policies are doomed to fail and Malthus’s prediction may come true of Pakistan.

The writer is a Supreme Courtadvocate, former caretaker federal minister, and former president of the SCBA.

Email: ali@mandviwallaandzafar.com