POBNEWS24, Dhaka, Aug 27,2021 : Bangladesh has shown remarkable progress in population control since its liberation from Pakistan in 1971. Health Minister Zahid Maleque told the media that the country has made remarkable progress in population control and it is now a role model in the world.
The annual population growth rate in Bangladesh has declined from 2.77 percent in 1961 to 2.13 percent in 1996, further reducing to 1.03 percent in 2020, according to the World Bank data.
The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in Bangladesh has come down from 6.3 births per woman in 1975 to 3.4 in 1994 to 2.3 in 2011 which is encouraging, says a UNFPA, Bangladesh report. In 2017, the TFR in Bangladesh stood at 2.06. The government aims to bring the TFR to 2.0 by 2021.
The success of the population control strategy is reflected in the fact that the number of people using contraceptives has gone up from 8 percent in 1975 to 54 percent in 2000, 61.2 percent in 2011 to over 63 percent in 2018.
The government has conducted a very successful family planning campaign since 1975 with catchy slogans and messages for different sections of society to motivate people to adopt birth control methods,
However, challenges remain as over 59 percent of girls in Bangladesh are still married before the age of 18. 23 percent of women are married before the age of 15.
