By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: “No matter how many population policies are formulated, the ever growing population in the country is not going to stabilise easily,” said Bharati Chanda, Joint Director of Census Operations, Arunachal Pradesh, here on Monday.
Speaking to reporters after a function on World Population Day at Women’s College here, Chanda said, “It is easy to enact laws to address the growing population, but most importantly motivation and awareness should be there among the people to control the population.”
According to Chanda, the schemes like the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has done its bit in addressing population growth while she maintained that awareness on family planning was needed to control growing population of the country.
The theme of this year’s population day is ‘Calling Attention to Urgent Global Issues’ by which UN has urged all governments, communities and individuals to understand and take action on issues related to population growth.
One of the important factors to control the population is believed to be the female literacy, which is important to create awareness about family planning, maternal health, gender equality, poverty, and human rights.
She also pointed out that the sex ratio in matrilineal Meghalaya, which now stands at 986 females against every 1000 males, is high when compared to the national level which is at 940
The population of the state has gone up in the recent past. The population of the state now stands at 2,964,007 which included 1492668 males and 1471339 females.
The World Population Day was also observed in Tura also. Organized by the District Health Society on the premises of the Government Boy’s Higher Secondary School, Tura, the programme was addressed by GHADC MDC L. Ch Momin.
Momin spoke on the effects of global population explosion.
Meanwhile, the Population Stabilization fortnight is being celebrated from Monday to July 24 Julyin Military Hospital Shillong. To mark the occasion, a lecture was delivered on the theme “Small Family: Overall Development.”