The event was established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989. It was inspired by the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1987, the approximate date on which the world's population reached five billion people. World Population Day aims to increase people's awareness on various population issues such as the importance of family planning, gender equality, poverty, maternal health and human rights. In 1968, the International Conference on Human Rights was held. For the first time ever, family planning was affirmed to be a human right. The Tehran Proclamation, adopted during the conference, states that it is a basic right of parents to be able to decide on the number and spacing of their children.
Family planning is a human right
Millions of women, globally, are still not given access to safe and effective family planning methods, Which is why it has been chosen as the focus for 2018. A basic human right is to be able to get safe and effective family planning. It should also be a voluntary choice. Gender equality and women’s empowerment depend on it. Furthermore, it is a key factor in reducing poverty. Women and girls have the right to avoid the exhaustion, depletion and danger of too many pregnancies, too close together. Men and women have the right to choose when and how often to embrace parenthood.
Nine standards to uphold the human right to family planning:
• Non-discrimination: Family planning information and services cannot be restricted on the basis of race, sex, language, religion, political affiliation, national origin, age, economic status, place of residence, disability status, marital status, sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Available: Countries must ensure that family planning commodities and services are accessible to everyone.
• Accessible: Countries must ensure that family planning commodities and services are accessible to everyone.
• Acceptable: Contraceptive services and information must be provided in a dignified manner, respecting both modern medical ethics and the cultures of those being accommodated.
• Good quality: Family planning information must be clearly communicated and scientifically accurate.
• Informed decision-making: Every person must be empowered to make reproductive choices with full autonomy, free of pressure, coercion or misrepresentation.
• Privacy and confidentiality: All individuals must enjoy the right to privacy when seeking family planning information and services.
• Participation: Countries have an obligation to ensure the active and informed participation of individuals in decisions that affect them, including health issues.
• Accountability: Health systems, education systems, leaders and policymakers must be accountable to the people they serve in all efforts to realize the human right to family planning.
Advantages of family planning
The term "family planning" generally refers to methods undertaken that allow women to control when they get pregnant. Frequently, family planning refers to hormonal birth control, such as the pill, injectible birth control, birth control patches and implants. Condoms, contraceptive sponges, diaphragms and spermicide are also frequently used as family planning methods. Finally, natural family planning, also called the rhythm method, requires no pills, hormones or devices. Instead, women monitor their menstrual cycle and refrain from sex during times of the month when conception is most likely to occur. Family planning doesn't just benefit individuals. A woman's ability to choose the number of children she wants to have reduces overpopulation and reduces the economic impact of overpopulation. According to the California Department of Health Services Office of Family Planning, the average woman would experience approximately 12 to 15 pregnancies in her lifetime if birth control didn't exist.
Family planning and environmental effects:
Some people who are serious about wanting to reduce their "carbon footprint" on the Earth have one choice available to them that may yield a large long-term benefit - have one less child. A study by statisticians at Oregon State University concluded that in the United States, the carbon legacy and greenhouse gas impact of an extra child is almost 20 times more important than some of the other environmentally sensitive practices people might employ their entire lives - things like driving a high mileage car, recycling, or using energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs. The research also makes it clear that potential carbon impacts vary dramatically across countries. The average long-term carbon impact of a child born in the U.S. - along with all of its descendants - is more than 160 times the impact of a child born in Bangladesh.
By taking family planning seriously, we pave the way to environmental protection. The researchers make it clear they are not advocating government controls or intervention on population issues. Reducing population growth and lowering fertility will improve communities' resilience and adaptive capacity in the short term, as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the long term, population reductions could reduce the risk of climate impacts, according to the working group.
Oppositions to population plan
Many experts and demographers believe that People are not pollution and the problem is another thing. Blaming too many people for driving climate change is like blaming too many trees for causing bushfires. The real cause of climate change is an economy locked into burning fossil fuels for energy and unsustainable agriculture. Unless we transform the economy and our society along sustainable lines as rapidly as possible, we have no hope of securing an inhabitable planet, regardless of population levels. Making the shift to renewable energy – not reduction in human population – is really the most urgent task we face. However, the world is not ‘full up’ and is not experiencing runaway population growth. Between 1950 and 2000 world population increased by 140%. Experts predict a rise of 50% between 2000 and 2050 and just 11% in the 50 years following that. In contrast, the rate of greenhouse gas emissions is rising out of control. Polluting technology, rampant consumerism and corporate greed are driving this increase – not population. Can we feed this many people? Studies by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation insist it is possible to feed well over 10 billion people sustainably – but only if we move to a very different food system. Furthermore, social justice and women’s equality is the best contraception to solve the crisis. Larger population growth rates in the Third World are a consequence of dire poverty and restrictions on women’s ability to control their own fertility. The evidence for this can’t be challenged. Raising living standards globally, eradicating hunger and poverty, improving health care, providing access to education and achieving greater equality for women are all necessary if we are to win a safe climate with global justice. They will also result in lower birth rates.
Other reasons for disagreeing population and family control plan is:
1. Abortion and infanticide rates climb
The biggest issue with the One Child policy in China is the alarming rate at which children are being killed or abandoned, mostly girls.
2. The little emperor syndrome
Having an only child, or being an only child, means that the attention and resources of the parents are focused solely on them for their entire lives. This has caused multiple problems among the youth in China. Obesity being one of the most concerning. The child is catered to, over indulged, and given just about anything that they want. This has resulted in lazy and overweight children in most of China. Another issue is the overall attitude of these one child policy offspring.
3. High pressure for the child
If you are your parents only child, many responsibilities and pressures fall upon your shoulders. All of the expectations that your parents have are left for you to achieve, especially when it comes to education and careers. The suicide rate in China is much higher than most other countries because of this stress. Another problem that these children face as they grow older is the fact that they are the only person that can take care of their aging parents and grandparents. This has resulted into a bit of a disaster for China, which is being referred to as the 4-2-1 problem. In Chinese culture, the child takes care of the elders in the family when they are no longer able to take care of themselves. This leaves four grandparents, two parents, and only one child to take care of them all.
4. Major gender imbalance
The majority of the population in China is male due to the fact that people can only have one child, and a boy is the only one that can provide money making potential and carry the families name forward. A major imbalance in males and females has resulted for the country. This will cause problems in the near future because it will become increasingly harder for a man to find a wife to bear him children.
5. Other problems that are arising
Some of the other issues that the One Child Policy in China has been causing for the country are a dwindling workforce. The population is still massive, but now the majority of Chinese people are elderly, leaving not enough people to sustain the countries massive labor needs. Another major problem with this policy is the infringement it has on the moral and ethical values that a family wishes to adopt.
The population and religions
Today, there are several theories, explanations and judgments about the control of the population. But it is obvious that religions, generally, encourage marriage and fertility. They advocate the growth of the population and the proliferation of generations. Marriage is without doubt one of the most important ceremonies among Jews. Judaism emphasizes the reproduction and renewal of the generation.
In the book of Genesis, we are confronted with a positive attitude toward the increase of the population, as the first commandment to the Prophet Adam: "And God blessed them, and he said to them," Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and submit it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every animal that moves on the earth. »»
As we examine the verses of the Qur'an, we find that Islam has always had a positive outlook on population growth. For example, the formation of the germ, fertility and childbirth are signs of God's power: "[35:11] And Allah created you from the earth, then from a drop of sperm, He then established you in couples. No female bears nor calves without knowing it. And no existence is prolonged or abridged without being recorded in a book. This is really easy for Allah."
Generally, viewpoint of popular religions about population growth is totally different. According to famous religions, the solution for environmental problems is not to limit childbirth because there are other ways to terminate it such as avoiding over-consumption and wasting the major resources like water, food, energy and etc. so, the alternative is not limitation of population, the solution is to consume better.
