Our newspapers often print heart-rending stories about poor and large families struggling to bring up their children.
Parents with a limited income find it hard to feed their children, let alone provide them with a proper education and care for their health. It is our responsibility to find a solution to this ever-growing problem.
Nowadays, a family with many mouths to feed often leads to a life of begging and even crime. Simply put, an increase in the number of children leads to poverty, disease and often stems from ignorance.
In most cases women keep on giving birth because they are not aware of the concept of family planning.
This often leads to poor families having large numbers of children, not because they desire them, but because they do not know how to limit their number. In the olden days, people used to be delighted to have a large number of children in the family because it meant more hands to work in the fields or other workplaces.
More children also meant more men to fight for the family whenever there was a dispute with neighbors or in times of war.
But times have changed. Now jobs are for well-educated and well-trained youths.
It is imperative that we start enlightening the public on the significance of family planning.
People should know that they would be happier when their families become smaller in size. Each newborn baby means additional expenses and obligations.
There are people who oppose the idea of birth control on various grounds. But their opposition does not change the fact that family planning is a national obligation if we desire a healthy and productive generation. People in the olden times had adopted the method of coitus interruptus to prevent pregnancy because they did not have any other means of contraception.
Women’s charity societies should make women aware of the significance of smaller families. In my view birth control is a legal obligation when people find it difficult to bring up their children.
Apart from enlightening women on family planning, women’s societies should freely supply contraceptive pills.
The Health Ministry should support the charities in their efforts and open family planning clinics.
The dangers of a huge population are far more vicious than the woes accompanying flash floods and that is why a national family planning program should be launched in the country.
