We need to protect vulnerable women and girls

Aminul Islam: 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-approximately the date on which the world`s population reached five billion people. The theme of this year`s World Population Day is `Vulnerable Populations in Emergencies`.

The world is seeing a record number of people displaced by crises – some 60 million according to the latest UN figures. UNFPA works in emergency settings around the globe to respond to the rights and needs of women and girls, helping them maintain their dignity, securing their safety, and restoring their access to sexual and reproductive health care.

This year, The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will spend World Population Day raising awarness of the needs of vulnerable women and girls in emergencies.

"With nearly 60 million individuals having fled conflict or disaster, women and adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable," UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said in a statement. "Violent extremists and armed groups are committing terrible abuses that result in trauma, unintended pregnancy and infection with HIV and other diseases."

 

The ongoing crisis in Syria, abetted by conflict in the Central African Public, South Sudan, Iraq and Ukraine, as well as others, have caused suffering and displacement on an unimaginable scale. During 2014, more than 219,000 refugees and migrants crossed the Mediterranean Sea into Europe – almost three times the known figure of 70,000 in 2011.

A huge number of those uprooted from their lives, who face unimaginable suffering due to armed conflict, discrimination, violence and instability, are women and children. According to the Women`s Refugee Commission, they make up about half of any refugee, internally displaced or stateless population.

So, it is very much essential to understand the needs of displaced women. Shelters should be safe and offer privacy, sanitation facilities should be easily and safely accessible and family roles need to be accounted for with regards to food distribution.

World Population Day and Bangladesh context

 

The 2011 total population was 152,518,015 which ranks Bangladesh 8th in the world. The baseline for population studies on Bangladesh is the official census which is conducted every 10 years, the last being in 2011.

Bangladesh had high rates of population growth in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then however it has seen a marked reduction in its total fertility rate. Over a period of three decades it dropped from almost 7 to 2.4 in 2005-2010.

The population of a country is one of its most invaluable assets. When the population exceeds the optimum level, the invaluable assets become a liability for the country. Bangladesh is a small country with an area of 147,570 square kilometres and a population of 161 million. The country has the highest density of population in the present world.

 

In 1971, when Bangladesh achieved independence, its population was about 75 million and this has increased by more than double within the past 43 years. The current growth rate varies from 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent a year according to assessments made by various analysts. Considering an annual average growth rate of 1.75 per cent a year, Bangladesh`s population will be 350 million within the next 40 years.

If the population growth goes unrestrained and unbridled and remains in the present position, what will happen to Bangladesh and its citizens when the population doubles? The policy-makers, and the people of Bangladesh must plan now to keep the population growth under control and at a desirable level.

risingbd/July 11, 2015/Aminul