Bangladesh shifts towards two-child policy again

Bangladesh is set to mark the World Population Day on Thursday with a major shift to its family planning policy.

The government is likely to change its stance on -- “No more than two children, better if one” policy -- with a “two-child policy” for the sake of a balanced male to female population ratio.    

“One child policy has created an imbalance in social process between men and women,” said Director of the Information, Education and Motivation (IEM) unit of the Directorate General of Family Planning (DGFP) Ashrafurnnessa on Wednesday. 

“Now, our slogan is whether it’s a boy or a girl, two children are enough,” she said at a press conference held in Dhaka on the eve of the World Population Day, 2019.

Bangladesh has been endorsing the “one couple, one child” family planning policy to curb its growing population for the past few years. 

However in 2014, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina differed with the slogan saying: “Countries that followed the one-child policy presently do not have sufficient youth population and workforce.”

Soon after, the DGFP started considering a change in its “one-child” campaign slogan.

The day will be observed this year with a call to developed nations regarding population empowerment with the theme -- “25 years of International Conference on Population and Development: Accelerating the Promise.”

Present at the press conference, Health Ministry Secretary Md Ashadul Islam revealed that a total of 61.6 percent of female population is currently using modern family planning measures, compared to only 15 percent in 1994.

The secretary also shared success stories about family planning achieved in the last ten years. 

The current population of Bangladesh is more than 168 million as of July 9, based on the latest United Nations (UN) estimation. It is equivalent to 2.18 percent of the total world population and the country ranks 8th in the list of most populated countries.