MINISTER OF Information Burchell Whiteman is bemoaning the rate of population growth as reflected in his statement at a United Nations Population Fund seminar held in Kingston recently.
The Minister noted, apparently with alarm, that while contraceptive use was increasing there were some 115,000 women who were not being reached by the family planning programme.
Most disturbing however, is Minister Whiteman's admission of a 66 per cent rate of unplanned pregnancies. Rather than merely quoting statistics, the Minister needs to tell us why the women are not getting the help they need. What has happened to what was once a vigorous family planning campaign that appeared to have been enjoying some measure of success? Are we to assume that the programme has failed? We recall a dynamic campaign that incorporated press and radio advertising, plus an outreach programme that targeted even remote rural areas.
Minister Whiteman's lament that rapid population growth retards development and helps to perpetuate poverty gives greater urgency to the need for answers; and moreso, bearing in mind the recent claim about the inroads achieved in reducing poverty levels.
It is an acknowledged fact that the rate of population growth is reduced when there are high levels of employment among women. The demise of the garment industry, which was the largest single employer of women, should have sounded a warning that the family planning programme needed to be reinvigorated.
Armed as he is with the grim statistics, the Minister must now tell us what measures the government plans to take to reduce the rapid population growth, which by his own admission, will make it difficult to allocate the country's resources and plan for the future.
We hope Minister Whiteman is not following the lead of the Prime Minister who recently squealed about extortion, going so far as to threaten closure of a housing project, rather than meeting the challenge head-on and doing something to end this particular scourge of criminal activity.
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