Suggest the Measures to Solve the Problems of Overpopulation

Measures to Solve the Problems of Overpopulation

The decrease in rate of growth of population has to be done to protect from the dismal and overcrowded future and to give a good life to the people of Pakistan. Some steps in earnest are to be taken which are detected below :

Population control strategies : 
A sociologist Ian Rebertson presented a tri-directional policy with reference to Tien & Alba in 1983 that can be helpful in reducing the rate of growth of population in general. And developed and developing countries has got benefit from this. This policy stresses need of family planning with all force in education and economic fields also:

1. Family planning : 
Family planning is such a policy that does not prevent reproduction process but archives a balance of childbirth according to the resources of the people who have to provide facilities of education and health to their children. The following steps in this regard may be useful and effective to control the population :

A. Proper Awareness of family planning :
This scheme can only be effective and useful when the individuals of a society are fully aware of its benefits. To produce awareness among people, the means of communication like radio, T.V, newspaper to inform the families about the problems of a big family should be used. Benefits of small family be briefed and a sense of family planning be produced so that they could adopt this scheme. it is of utmost importance in this regard that sensitive values of people be not affected to avoid their negative reaction.

B. Provision of better facilities of family planning :
The purpose of family planning is to bring the thinking of parents to a stage to make them think about their available sources of income and to make them feel the need of small family by telling them the problems of big family with no economic sources. An under stress and mishandling of the problem may give rise to a negative reaction. As a second step of this scheme should be that the willing parents are given useful suggestion and facilities to set up on specific but not distant places but there should a part of hospitals, child welfare centers and public health services to facilitate the approach of the common people.

C. Offering incentives :
The people who welcome the family planning should be facilitated in a number of ways available in the country. After World War Second, Japan adopted a policy to check growth rate of population and gave facilities for free education of two children family and it succeeded in ten years to bring rate of growth from
14 to 34%, which is a world record. Similarly, .China is another example when award of facilities was also associated with fear of punishment under govt. control. It was allowed in the policy for two children and with one child only, the government was bound to provide everything to have necessity to a family with financial help and preference in employment. These measures worked well and within thirty years the rate of growth fell to 0.9% in 2000 as compared to the rate of ‘2.8% in 1971 and this target was achieved by America in fifty yours to‘ 0.6% in 2000.

2. Promotion of Education :
The second big step in controlling the overpopulation is promotion of education. It has rightly been said that the more the education, the less the population and this is true for Pakistan especially. All efforts done to control the overpopulation have failed so far mainly due to lack of education in country and these efforts are less likely to bear fruits in future also until the promotion of education is not given more priority to all of the available efforts and policies in connection with control of population. Despite going into the reasons of lack of promotion of education, it is to be noted that in spite of so many steps in terms of adult education programmes and other programmes, the literacy rate could not have been achieved so far. The reason is mainly the overpopulation that eats away all the benefits given for and by education and this has been the case with all such countries that have not controlled overpopulation except those having extraordinary reasons. China by 88%, Sri Lanka 85% and Singapore by 92% in 1991 became successful in getting the above literacy rate because at the same time these continues tried and succeeded in controlling population. Especially women education plays an important part in family planning. The relationship of education and control of population has been described in an interested way by the researchers in the field.
i. Education gives answers to betterment of the society.
ii. It promotes a tendency towards better standard of'life.
iii. It gives help to make the life standard better.
iv. It motivates and promotes social mobility.
v. It directs women to participate in other activities rather than to act as child-bearing machines.
vi. It promotes daringness and incentive in women to use family planning for the betterment of their life.
vii. It is the only way that prepares people to live a better life without asking them to have birth control (Report by Hernandez 1974, Ehrlich 1979)

3. Economic Improvement :
Demographic Transition Theory has proved that the relationship between overpopulation and economic situation is very deep. Though economic progress is a cause of overpopulation in the beginning but after all it becomes a source of control of population. Since this development makes the standard of life better,
therefore, results in a sense of control of population. Economic reforms have shown tendency towards less rate of growth of population. The consideration in terms of better living, having better facilities of education, health protection, availability of articles to all people of the society and their surety of remaining available in future, persuades to remain in limited families, family planning failed in many (including Pakistan) countries because rate of growth could not be controlled because the sources of these countries were in the possession of tiny elite class to enjoy life better than those of the poor fallen a prey to extreme poverty and this class is continuing to produce manpower and this is what is possible for this to do only. (Report Abba 1980) Control of overpopulation is need of the time, because only from 1950 to 2000, 350 million people have been born which is more than double. If the world population were to increase by 1.45% it would reach to 1200 million in 2050 but if Pakistan were to continue its rate of growth at the present speed, it would have exceeded to 300 million in 2032 and it will scale from sixth to fifth largest overpopulated country.
Keeping in view all these data, we have to adopt a strict policy of controlling the overgrowth so that the coming generation should remain safe from its problems.