KARACHI:Like other parts of the globe, the World Population Day was observed in Pakistan on Wednesday with the aim to reduce population to a maximum low level so as to ensure sustainability of human life by adopting family planning policies in true spirit.
Various programs in Karachi and other parts of the country were arranged to mark the day with dignity and raise awareness about low population importance.
A rally was taken out from Lahori Muhalla to the office of the Medical Superintendent Chandka Medical College Hospital in Larkana on Wednsday. Director Population Welfare Department Mohammad Ishaque Bhurgri, Imdad Ali Talpur, Moeed Surhio, Ghulam Murtaza Shah, DHO Abdul Rahman Baloch, Dr. Bashiran Bano and others took part in the rally. They urged the authorities to take foolproof steps against growing population.
A seminar was also held here at the office of Population Welfare Department today in which speakers said: “The main reason of hunger, unemployment, poverty and ailments is the unchecked growth of population around the world. Pakistan’s population at the moment is 22 crore which will increase to 40 crore by 2050. Pakistan 20 years ago was at No. 9 in the world by way of population and now it has secured No. 6 in the chart of global population.”
Dr. Abdul Wahid Tagar, Dr. Saeed Ahmed Memon, Abdul Karim Mangi and others addressed the moot. They said that growing population had created a lot of problems in the world and it was just like a ticking bomb which when exploded will destroy everything in the world, they warned.
World Population Day is an annual event, observed on July 11 every year, which seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. The event was established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989. It was inspired by the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1987, the approximate date on which the world’s population reached five billion people. World Population Day aims to increase people’s awareness on various population issues such as the importance of family planning, gender equality, poverty, maternal health and human rights.
The day was suggested by Dr KC Zachariah in which population reaches Five Billion when he worked as Sr Demographer at World Bank. While press interest and general awareness in the global population surges only at the increments of whole billions of people, the world population increases by 100 million approximately every 14 months. The world population reached reached 7,500,000,000 at around 16:21 on April 24, 2017.
Pakistan being one of the high-fertility countries with a large proportion of young adults and children had a population of 33 million in 1950 and its rank was 14th in the world but today, its population has reached around 210 million making Pakistan 6th most populous country of the world, after China, India, USA, Indonesia, Brazil, and surpassed Japan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, South Korea, Russia etc.