New Delhi, 10 June (IANS). According to the new report released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Tuesday, the rate of giving birth to children is decreasing due to job insecurity, lack of children’s care and poor health.
The State of World Population (SOWP) report shows that millions of people are not able to take their own decisions about physical relations, contraceptives and families. They are not getting complete information or help.
The report says that people do not need to be afraid that the birth rate is getting very low, but we should pay attention to that everyone is able to create a family as per their wish.
The report is based on a survey conducted in UNFPA and U-Gov in 14 countries, including India. A total of 14,000 people were included in this survey, who stated that people in India face many problems in health and family decisions.
About 40 percent of the people say that lack of money is the biggest problem. 21 percent of people say that they are not able to think of the child due to insecurity of the job. 22 percent of people are in trouble due to not getting the right place to live. At the same time, 18 percent people say that they do not have trusted childcare. These are all reasons, which are preventing people from becoming parents.
Apart from this, 15 percent of people are unable to do children due to poor health. 13 percent of people are struggling with infertility problem. At the same time, 14 percent of people do not have access to pregnancy related care. Due to climate change and political-social instability, people are worried about their future, so that they are unable to plan to raise families. About 19 percent of people pressurize their partner or family to do less children at their own will.
UNFPA India representative Andrea M. Woznar said, “Now women in India have already produced fewer children. In 1970, every woman had about five children, but today the number has been almost two. This change happened because people have got good education and they have started getting the correct information and services of family planning.”
He further said, “Due to this, there has been a huge decrease in maternal mortality, which means that millions of mothers are alive today, raising their children and strengthening their society. But, not everyone is the same in different states, castes.”
India has done a great job in reducing fertility rates and pregnancies associated with conception, but, the SOWP report states that different states still have many inequalities in terms of birth rate and health.
The report states that some states like Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh still have more children. But other states like Delhi, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have low fertility rates.
According to the report, these two types of situation are because everywhere people have different opportunities, good health facilities, education levels and behavior of women in society. Due to all these things, there is a difference in social norms.
Woznar said, “When everyone gets the freedom to decide or not to have their marriage, children or not, then India seems to be a special occasion to show how the rights and good economic conditions of the people can increase simultaneously.”
The report underlines the fact that the real problem is not how big our population is, but rather many people are facing difficulties in their lives when, when, how and how many children want.
It is saying that we should increase breeding health services for all. For example, everyone should get a cure for contraceptive, safe abortion, maternity related to maternity and treatment for infertility. Also, we have to eliminate difficulties that interrupt these services. For this, we have to invest in flexible rules of child care, education, housing and work. Also, such policies have to be made that include everyone and give equal opportunities for everyone.
-IANS
PK/ABM
