SHILLONG: The total number of indigenous people in the city will cross 2 lakh by the end of 2017 indicating the government’s slow family planning initiatives.
Speaking at the State-level advocacy meeting on World Population Day here in the city on Monday, Health and Family Welfare Secretary HM Shangpliang said, “Last year, the number of indigenous people in Shillong, leaving apart the floating population, was 1.98 lakh. The indigenous population in the city is increasing by around 10,000 every year.”
The total population here was 3.54 lakh in 2011. In 2012, the indigenous population was 1.5 lakh that increased to 1.62 lakh in 2013. The graph kept rising with population touching 1.83 lakh in 2015.
According to Shangpliang, India with 1,528 million people will beat China’s population by 2030.
Stressing on the need to plan a family with responsibility, the official expressed concern over the trend of teenage pregnancy and early marriage in villages.
Shangpliang said though it was decided that the issues of teenage pregnancy and early marriage would be discussed with Rangbah Shnong and women’s organisations, “I feel there is a need to talk to the youth first”.
He also rued that many women in villages are anaemic since they lack iron and give birth to babies without taking necessary nutrition supplements.
The chairperson of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR), Meena Kharkongor, said many children are being abandoned in shelter homes in and outside the State since families cannot feed them.
“In villages, families have 8-9 children and when we ask them why they have so many babies, the reply we get is that the children are given by God,” she said at the programme on the theme ‘A new wave, a new belief/Trust, Families proper with total responsibility’.
While lamenting the fact that there is a lack of education and awareness on family planning, Kharkongor stressed on a strong mechanism to sensitise people on the adverse effects of population explosion in relation to employment, education and healthcare, among others.
“Families must voluntarily take up the cause for a happier and healthier life,” she added.
Kharkongor said female education in rural areas holds the key to addressing the population boom.
“Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and Anganwadi workers can be utilised to create awareness in rural areas about family planning,” she said.
Stating that 214 million women in developing countries want to avoid pregnancy but they are not getting effective support system and information about contraceptives, Kharkongor also asked the government to develop the healthcare system in rural areas.
Calling on the need to address the problems of teenage pregnancy and early marriages in the state, Kharkongor also urged men to be supportive towards women as far as family planning is concerned.
Senior officials from the Health Department, doctors and youths were also present on the occasion.
