PATIALA: As the world population edged to 7.6 billion people as of July 2018, it has had profound implications for development. A world of 7 billion is both a challenge and an opportunity with implications on sustainability, urbanization, access to health services and youth empowerment.
Campus Director Dr. Piush Verma said this while speaking at the conference hall, at Rayat Bahra, Patiala Campus at a function to mark the World Population Day.
Speaking on the population explosion Dr Verma said that the key to curbing population growth trends lies in robust and restrictive government policies towards child birth and birth control as a means of curbing population growth. As much as international bodies propose several strategies to curb population growth, these recommendation remain obsolete unless governments take the step and integrate them into their domestic, social and economic policies.
Dr Verma said that today population explosion is one of the major concerns of the world. As this issue of uncontrolled population growth is giving birth to other major problems in the world. Few of the major consequences of the rapid growth of population in the current time are poverty, unemployment, pollution, deforestation etc. There is severe need to check this explosion and observance of World Population Day is just a step in this direction.
Each year, World Population Day is given a theme. This year’s theme, “Family Planning is a Human Right”, that recognizes the implementation of legislation that definitively stated that women and girls had the right to avoid exhaustion, danger and depletion from too many pregnancies too close together if they felt it the best route for them. If we look at the numbers, everyday approximately 830 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.
Dr Verma said that all stakeholders should provide young girls with equal access to education, healthcare, decent work and representation in political and economic decision-making process will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanities at large.