Youth bulge not forever, lets harness dividend now

World Population Day an occasion for introspection: Dr Harsh Vardhan

The World Population Day is a day for introspection. India has spectacularly failed in
controlling its population and in utilising its huge human resource base to engender national
progress. Is it too late to effect a change of course?

Making this observation on the eve of UN World Population Day, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union
Health Minister, said Nations have suffered for want of enough able bodied and wise men.
We have plenty of this resource in India but dont know how to use it to our national
advantage. What can be a greater tragedy?

The Health Minister said that the theme for this years World Population Day chosen by the
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPS) is Investing in youth. For India this is most
appropriate because it presently has one of the youngest populations in the world. More than
half are below 25 and 65 percent of the population is under 35 years of age, he stated.

The intention of observing July 11 as World Population is to raise awareness on the need to
offer adequate health, education and other essential services. The Executive Director of
UNFPA, Mr Babatunde Osotomehin has called for raising peoples awareness of the problem
of adolescent pregnancies. He has also given a call for investing in adolescent girls which is
key to achieving development aims. This, according to the Health Minister, dovetails with
Prime Minister Sh Narendra Modis stated objectives.

Even in the second decade of the 21st century, the government is nowhere when it comes to
evolving an education system which convinces people not to impose marriage and pregnancy
on young girls before they are physically and mentally capable of motherhood, Dr Harsh
Vardhan said.

WHO has stated that half of the worlds adolescent pregnancies occur in seven countries, one
of which is India. A UNFPA report of 2011 stated that every year 4 million teenage girls
under 18 have babies. For every 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19 there are 76 adolescent births
compared to 49 worldwide and 53 in developing countries.

Let us not harbour the illusion that these pregnancies are the result of sound consensus. They
are a consequence of discrimination, rights violations, child marriage, inadequate education
or downright rape. I have spoken out against so-called sex education without pedagogy on
this burning issue and would like it to be replaced by a format which makes people aware
about child pregnancy and associated evils, Dr Harsh Vardhan said.

Dr Vardhan said that the present population of India, 1.2 billion, need not be viewed as a
burden. Our population is young and willing to contribute but we have to empower them
with adequate skills. This is the only route to harnessing the demographic dividend.
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