Govt Committed To Focus On Controlling Population Growth : Hashim Dogar

Punjab minister for Population Muhammad Hashim Dogar Thursday said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was committed to focus on controlling population growth for the socioeconomic development of the country

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Jan, 2019 ) :Punjab minister for Population Muhammad Hashim Dogar Thursday said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was committed to focus on controlling population growth for the socioeconomic development of the country.

While talking in a ptv current affair programme, the minister said the Punjab government had increased the budget of population welfare department after understanding the importance of the issue.

"Poverty and ignorance are the main reasons of rising population and only education can tackle it," he added.

He revealed that the Punjab government was launching a nationwide campaign for promoting basic education especially for women.

The minister said that education especially for women was very vital to educate the whole family.

The minister said a district level campaign had been launched by the department to educate the people about hazards of unchecked population growth.

Under this campaign, social mobilizers will apprise the married couples about the utility of family planning as well as use of latest contraceptive methods by visiting their homes. The services of religious scholars would also be utilized to make this campaign a success, he added.

Hashim urged Ulema scholars to support the government in creating awareness among the people about population control.

The time has come where government, donor, and non-government organizations know they must cooperate to achieve tangible results, he said, adding, the need of the time is to mainstream population dynamics across core national and provincial development plans and strategies in this regard.

The minister highlighted the Punjab government was making a policy to provide special grants to female laborers to feed their children for up to two years.

He said that breast feeding not only bring natural gap between the birth of children but also make mothers able to pay their full attention to the children, he added.

Hashim Dogar mentioned, "Population explosion was a major threat in our country that has been neglected by the previous governments but present government of PTI is committed to address this issue on priority." He also highlighted that within the Punjab we would start a pilot project of 'Pre marriage counseling programmes' for young girls and boys where they could get a training educations about their Marriage issues and after completion of their courses, they would received a proper certificate.

'In different rural areas, we will meet the Imams of mosques for awareness seminars to educate people of these areas according to Islamic point of views", he added.

The minister further said departmental record was being computerized to improve the organizational performance.

The population growth rate was increasing rapidly which was required to be controlled and the people should lend a helping hand in this regard, the minister added.

"It was mainly because of lack of awareness and misunderstanding on the part of the people that a relation has been created between family planning and religion while, in fact, it deals with maternal health and development of the society," he added.

He urged print and electronic media to guide the society in the right direction by communicating the right message to them.