Govt revising population policy with focus on demography management

Infographic: TBS

The government has decided to update Bangladesh Population Policy 2012, laying emphasis on population management as well as controlling the birth and death rates.

One of the main objectives of the Population Policy 2012 was the control of the birth rate to bring down population size.

The revised policy will shift its focus from population control to management to realise a maximum demographic dividend. 

For that, the new policy will have a set of objectives such as ensuring vocational education for the young population to create skilled manpower, prevention of child marriage and adolescent pregnancy, women's education for sustainable reproductive health, women's empowerment, eradication of discrimination and poverty and take care of the ageing population to achieve the second demographic dividend.

The Directorate General of Family Planning is currently gathering the opinions of stakeholders to prepare the initial draft of the revised policy. 

The draft copy will be submitted to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare by 30 July, said Mohammad Bellal Hossain, a consultant for policy revision and a professor at the Department of Population Sciences of Dhaka University, in a consultation workshop with journalists at the conference room of the Directorate of Family Planning at Karwan Bazar of the capital on Thursday. 
At the workshop, Professor Mohammad Bellal Hossain gave a presentation on the rationale for updating Population Policy 2012.
In the presentation, he said the scope to get Bangladesh's first demographic dividend will continue from 2041 to 2061. To make use of this population as a public resource, skill creation, skill development, and vocational education should be ensured. This will be emphasised in the new population policy.
The population policy of 2012 had the slogan "Not more than two children, one is better". But the government has moved away from that slogan and gone back to the previous slogan "Be it a boy or a girl, two children are enough". 
The new population policy will move beyond numerical targets for family planning programmes to include women's education for sustainable reproductive health, women's empowerment, and eradication of discrimination and poverty, Bellal Hossain said. 
He said that the population of Bangladesh will continue to increase until 2061 and at that time the total population of Bangladesh will be around 207 million. In 2061, the population growth rate of Bangladesh will reach zero. 
Also, the population growth rate will be negative from 2062 onwards. If the population growth rate is negative, what kind of situation will happen, and how to deal with it should be planned now, the professor said.
Bellal Hossain said the ageing population in the country was 8.2% in 2021, which will increase to 22.2% in 2061. Even as our average life expectancy increases, older people are less likely to be healthy. 
According to research, there is a difference between average life expectancy and average healthy life expectancy. People aged between 60 and 64 years have an average healthy life expectancy of 7.9 years against the average life expectancy of 19.6 years, he said.
In order to achieve the second demographic dividend by increasing the average life expectancy of the population, the issue of taking measures for the ageing population should be kept in the population policy, which is not in the 2012 policy, the professor said in his presentation.
Shahan Ara Banu, the director general of the Directorate General of Family Planning, said, "Family planning is not only population control but also population management. To create skilled human resources, child marriage-adolescent pregnancy must be stopped, and women's education and empowerment are essential."
Besides, initiatives should be taken so that the ageing population can work healthily for a long time. Although the rural healthcare infrastructure is good, there is no urban health infrastructure for the urban poor. Urban primary health care needs to be developed, she added.

History of Population Policy in Bangladesh
In 1976, the population policy was outlined but the policy was not eventually adopted. Until 2003, population-related activities were guided by the Five-Year Plan of Bangladesh.
A population policy was formulated and formally approved in 2004. It was updated in 2012 and expired in 2015. 
The main objectives of this policy were lowering the population growth rate and transitioning from population control-focused family planning services (till 1997) to rights-based reproductive health services (from 1998 to the present day).