UNFPA report on Bangladeshi Population

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Leading population scientists of the country today called for an end to the controversy arising from last week’s UNFPA’s world population report and said it’s time to focus on the implications of the overpopulation instead of debating on numbers.

The UNFPA on October 20 in its report claimed that Bangladesh population had risen to 16.44 crore in 2010 and said it would reach 22.25 crore by next 40 years with an increase rate of 1.4 percent per year. The government denied the report as no national statistics supports the claim.

“It’s immaterial whether the population size is 15 crore or 16 crore or above. The reality is that every figure shows a zumbo population size that needs to be downsized on an urgent basis,” leading population scientist Professor AKM Nurunnabi said at a symposium in the city.

Department of Population Sciences, Dhaka University organized the symposium on “Demographic Prospects and Challenges in Bangladesh” at the Senate Hall of the university.

A total of eight papers were presented at the function,which was addressed, among others, by Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University Prof. AAMS Arefin Siddique, chairman of Population Sciences Department Mehedi Hasan Khan and Representative of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Arther Erken.

Country Director of Population Council Bangladesh Dr Ubaidur Rob, country director of Engender Health Dr Abu Jamil Faisel,consultant for MEASUE Evaluation, USA, Dr Ahmed Al Sabir, Prof.Dr M Kabir of Jahangirnagar University, Dr Shams El Areffin of ICDDR,B, Marcos Arevalo of US Public Health Institute, Prof. Dr AQM Mahbub of Dhaka University and Dr Ahmed Neaz of American International University also spoke on the occasion.

Prof. Nurunnabai said statistics play a very important role
but in most cases the reality proves to be more important than
the statistics. He said it is already accepted that Bangladesh is
overly and densely populated and it requires effective strategies
to reverse the booming trend of population.

Dr Rob also gave an identical opinion and said Bangladesh is
an overpopulated country and the population size is growing
further. He said the population should be the core issue of all
development sector planning and programmes to remove poverty and
turn Bangladesh into a middle income country by 2021, fifty years
after country’s birth.

He said an estimated 33 lakh children are born against 11
lakh deaths each year in the country and the present population
is expected to be stabilized at 22.5–25 crore by 2060. The
country would, however, require another 50 to 60 years to see
population size is downsized, he added.

During this long period, Rob said, the country should adopt
pragmatic and effective policies to turn its population into
human resources through technical and vocational education. He
said the country requires the people with technical know-how
instead of so-called bookish literates.

China and India, two largest emerging economies, have made
huge investments in human development and have built tens of
thousands of technical and vocational schools to prepare human
resources for economic development. Similar programmes should be
followed in Bangladesh as well, he added.

Prof. Ahmed Neaz said over 70 lakh people work abroad and
earn around Taka 77,000 crore every year. And almost all the
money is spent in unproductive and non-farm sectors, especially
for buying lands and running shops. He urged the government to
utilize remittance efficiently, invest more in human development
and turn unskilled labours into semi-skilled or skilled manpower
to tap $30-40 billion per year in five years from labour
migration.

According to his statistics, Bangladesh needs to train 66
lakh people to engage them in both domestic and overseas
employment. The country can now hardly train 100,000 people
through different public and private institutes as no new
vocational institute has been developed in last 10 years.

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