Barring a few small island-states. Bangladesh ts the most densly populated country In the world. Today Bangladesh stands as the world's ninth most populous country. In 1947. the population of Bangladesh was 4.2 million. Today. In 1993. It has gone beyond the 110 million mark.
Efforts to control population growth at the government ievefcavftieen going on tn Bangladesh for the last 27 years. Even before that, in 1953, a voluntary organisation launched family planning programme, for the first time In this country, on a iltrnlted scale. Since then. Ithrough various phases of changes and evolution, family planning and MCH programme eventually found a firm base here The National programme is now being Implemented through the concerted efforts of the government and non-government orga jitsaUonS( Wor|Ban report says that Bangladesh is the only country among the developing nations which despite unfavourable'soclo -economic conditions, has made excellent advanes In the field pf family planning. The report also mentions that the implementation of a social development pro gramme like family planning ts a difficult task In a country like Bangla desh with a vast majority of illiterate population. In spite of good progress in many areas of family planning, the population growth rate still remains quite hlgh-£.17 per year. The factor that contributes most in this case Is the young age—structure of the population of the country. The age-structure Is a major determinant in the demographic dynamics of
a given population In Bangladesh, a large portion of the population today is in the reproductive age group. Also, early marriage of women Is rampant In the Bangladesh societies. Most of these adolescent girls begin the|r conjugal life quite early and start child bearing.-
Women constitute 49 percent of the total popula tlon. The number of women In the reproductive age group of 15-49 is over 20 million now About 1.15 million couples get married .every year In Bangladesh. The babies born out of this large number of marriages are. needless to say. swelling the population each year. The causes of high maternal morality and morbidity of mothers and Infants in thl« country pccur due to early marriage of women and frequent childbirths.
Despite making the availability ofcontra ceptives easier and strengthening the service delivery system, fertllllly decline among young mothers have shown little change compared to that among the older ones.
The other reality is that, universal awareness about the whole range of contraceptives has not yet been achieved If we analyes various data, we find that married women have a high awareness about two contraceptive methods only the pill and thubectomy. The rates of awareness In this case are 96 and 81 percent respectively. Barring those two methods, awareness about the rest of the methods Is below 60 percent. This is rather discouraging, because it Is only through an Incereasei rate of awareness and knowledge about the wider range of contraceptives that we ran expect to incerease the rate of ecceplors.
Moreover. It has also been found that the average number of younger mothers using contraceptive methods are less than that of the older ones. As a result of this the Impact on fertility Is less visible Due to the extensive family planning pro gramme tn the country the contraceptive prevalance rale (CPR) Is now slightly over 40 percent, the CPR target set In the current Fourth Five Year plan (1990-1995) Is 50 percent. The experience In other developing countries, however, show that the tasks of achtvelng 50 percent CPR and beyond are extremely difficult ones. In some cases this , rate has been ol»erved to ba-erather dropped down. Another Important point to notice Is that, If the majority of contraceptive users In a country belongs tq the older age group, then the total fertility rate In that country cannot be expected to decline sub stanltally even if a high CPR Is achieved.
The focus today, therefore, has been turned to the newlywed couples of the country. These young couples have been IdenllffeddBthe major target-population and exphasis has been laid on bringing them under the National Family Planning Programme. If we can succeed in motivating these young couples not to have a baby until the wife Is 20. space the birh of their next baby by at least 2 years, and If we can convince them of the benefits of two child familles4hen that will certainly have a definite effect on the population growth process in this-country.
It Is gratifying to note that
newer strategies have been adopted by the Govern ment keeping In view the demographic realities of the country. Easily comprehensible method specific messages' are being developed for the eligible couples to enhance their Interest and knowledge. Careful segmentation of different target population are being done and messages developed accordingly. At the same lime, steps have been taken to develop the Inter personal communication skills of the family planning fieldworkers through specially designed training courses. In Fact a new national strategy for Information, motivation and communication activities Is being drawn up to address the needs In tHis ^dhss to say. the I Government cannot Im plement with success a vast and complex social dvelopment programme like family planning all by itself. The participation of the conscious section of the popluatlon Is. therefore, Indispensable. Prac tlces like child-marriage and polygamy are still rampant in our society. These cannot be removed by conventional laws and regulations. There exists a need to mount a campain on mass awareness to propagate the Ideas of late marriage, late childbearing. birth-spacing. two child families, and so on. In this direction, efforts are being made to strengthen the concerted actions of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, the Directorate of Family Planning and other related Ministries and organisationrand the NGOs to promote and increase community participation in the family planning programme.