Inter-lInkages between PoPulatIon DynamIcs anD DeveloPment In ...

CHAPTER 4CHALLENGES IN INTEGRATINGPOPULATION DYNAMICS ANDDEVELOPMENTSeveral major challenges remain in effectively addressing inter-linkages of population dynamics anddevelopment. We now highlight some of these challenges in the respective countries.BangladeshPopulation MomentumAs 40% of Bangladesh’s population is below 15 years old, this has serious implications for the continuingpopulation growth resulting from the population momentum effect. Due to the young age structure of thepopulation, the population will continue to increase even after achieving replacement level fertility.The implications for the country’s socio-economic development would be severe as it: (i) aggravates furtherexisting man-land ratio and population density; (ii) reduces per capita availability of food; (iii) increase inworking age population, especially among youth, and creation of job opportunities will be extremely difficultas well as an increase in youth unemployment unavoidable; (iv) difficulty in improving the quality of educationand health facilities; and (v) difficulty in achieving the anticipated economic growth.Interventions taken to minimise the impact of the population momentum effect are as follows:• More effective enforcement of the minimum legal age at marriage for females;• Further raising the female age at marriage;• Delaying the age at first birth;• Subsequently increasing the space between desired births;• Meeting unmet need for contraception;• Minimising unwanted fertility; and• Reducing desired family size, complemented by more widespread voluntary acceptance of the ‘one child’family norm.The above measures will be addressed through intensified IEC activities, high quality service delivery, andinter-sectoral collaboration for promoting female education and employment of women.Overall, the PRSP 2 has a comprehensive strategy to address the population momentum effect. The challengewill be how inter-sectoral collaboration could be operationalised and coordinated for synergy of energy andresources in view of the current global financial meltdown as donor funding may be reduced or diminished.Gender InequalitySadly, the PRSP 2 reported that VAW is still “all pervasive in Bangladesh” despite the Constitution of Bangladeshguaranteeing equality and equal protection for all citizens. Women continue to suffer from harassment,humiliation, physical assault, sexual assault and acid attacks. The women in Bangladesh face daily risk andvulnerabilities throughout their life cycle. VAW occurred due to various reasons, namely poverty, dowry, earlymarriage, superstition, social attitude and low social status of women in the general society. In 2001, about14% of maternal deaths were caused by VAW.Measures taken by the Government to address this problem include: (i) awareness campaign on VAW; (ii)introduce quick tribunals to bring to trial the perpetrators; (iii) enact laws on acid attacks; (iv) introduce one-33