From DIANA BROWN
Hari Sharan attacks the New Delhi population summit for focusing on
only one of the ‘three main parameters’ that affect sustainability (Forum,
2 April). But other aspects had already been tackled at the Rio Earth Summit.
The New Delhi summit was organised so that scientists could make an input
to the International Conference on Population and Development to be held
later this year in Cairo.
I cannot speak for ‘the majority of people in industrialised countries’,
but I am sure that those who have any real knowledge of population issues
are well aware that poverty can cause population growth. What is too often
ignored is that population growth can cause poverty, contributing to a vicious
circle.
Sharan cites an example of a poor family who need six children just
to survive, because of problems like needing between 2 and 6 hours’ labour
per day to gather fuel, and large amounts of labour to till a small plot
of land. But this is an example of the so-called tragedy of the commons,
where everyone is driven by individual need to the detriment of the common
good. If every family is having a similar number of children, gathering
sufficient fuel from a finite supply is likely to get harder and harder.
Moreover, if the children in their turn reproduce at the same rate, the
plot of land is likely to be insufficient for the needs of their families.
The strategies for development sketched out by Hari Sharan make good
sense, but I would add as essential features working for equal rights for
women and access to information and choice in matters of family planning.
Women’s empowerment is important both for defeating poverty and for slowing
population growth.
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It used to be said some twenty years ago that ‘development is the best
contraceptive’, but there is increasing evidence that contraceptives are
the best contraceptive and that a majority of people in developing countries,
even the poor, want access to modern methods.
It is interesting that Karan Singh, who originally coined the phrase
‘development is the best contraceptive’, said recently that population was
the most serious problem being faced today by developing countries. He called
for large-scale funding of family planning and of contraceptive research.
He also called for a massive campaign of motivation to take family planning
into villages.
Highly successful campaigns in a number of countries point the way
for others. Bangladesh, for example, is a poor, heavily populated, largely
agrarian country that has managed in the past twenty years to achieve a
rapid increase in contraceptive availability and use and a decrease of 1.5
children per woman in its total fertility rate.
It is no use shutting our eyes to the problems caused by population
growth or waiting for development on its own to solve them. Equally, it
would be foolish to suggest that population growth is the only problem we
have to solve, but then no one is doing so.
Diana Brown Population Concern, London
