Thirteen percent of the women in the country are not aware of the family planning methods over the years though it was introduced in 1960. However, the methods' adoption has been increasing among them, but very slowly. All these information have been revealed in a research conducted by Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey (BDHS) of Dhaka University.
The report, however, said 40 percent mother mortality was reduced in between 2001 and 2010. It also said mother mortality out of the total was reduced by 25 percent due to the contributions of health service facilities provided by the government to the women folk in the country. During a survey conducted in 2014, it was found that 54 percent of the women adopted modern methods of the family planning devices while in same time eight percent women adopted the traditional methods.
Only 7.7 percent women used to have family planning devices in 1975 while it was 62 percent in the year 2016, the report said adding that in the year 2010, the percentage was 61.7. The report also said the increase of education in women and their empowerment radically changed the behavior in adopting the modern devices of contraceptives. Since then a good number of women have been adopting the tradition methods.
The fertility rate among the women are 2:1, the report said adding that each woman gives birth to two children on an average in the country causing the explosion of population. As per the statistics of the Bureau of Statistics, last year the population of the country was 16 crore while it is now 16 crore and 17 lakh with the increase of newborns this year. The sources in the Family Planning Direct-orate have said there is an acute shortage of field-level staff of the directorate to monitor the family planning activities in the country.
The shortage of family planning devices are also a great problem. World Health Organization (WHO) sources in the capital have said despite the early marriage in the country we can reduce the population growth and by introducing birth control methods, the mortality rate can be reduced by 32 percent. "We need to create awareness among the members of the public to control the birth rate.
Dr Kazi Mustafa Sarwar, Director General of Bangladesh Directorate of Family Planning, has said the government is giving due importance to reducing the birth rate and a program to this effect is being taken.
-Tapan Khan, AA
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