‘India to surpass China in numbers by 2030’

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 11

World Population Day was observed at various government hospitals and health centres across the district on Wednesday.

An awareness programme was organised by the staff of the Khanna Civil Hospital. Addressing the audience, Senior Medical Officer Rajinder Gulati said currently, out of the 7.4 billion (approximately) people in the world, India amounted to 1.327 billion — 17.5 per cent of the world’s population.

“India stands second in the population chart and it is expected that it will surpass China by 2025-2030 in the population growth which is projected to be 1.65 billion,” he said.

“This brings up the urgency to understand why population control is important in India. Gulati told the audience that from 2001 to 2011, India’s population grew by 181 million,” said Dr Gulati. He further said: “This year, the theme of World Population Day, which marked the 50th anniversary of the International Conference on Human Rights in 1968, is ‘Family planning is a human right’.”

Gulati highlighted the advantages of practising family planning methods and their availability at various centres. He said the ongoing interventions under family planning programme include “ensuring the quality of care in family planning services by establishing quality-assurance committees in all states and districts.”

Neeru Syal, Gynecologist at the hospital, talked about the benefits of permanent sterilisation methods, such as non-scalpel vasectomy and laproscopic tubectomy. She discussed other methods of family planning.

Meanwhile, the day was also observed at Community Health Centre, Koom Kalan, on the directions of Civil Surgeon Parwinder Pal Singh Sidhu. An awareness lecture was organised wherein the importance of family planning was discussed. Dr RP Bhatia, Senior Medical Officer, said population was increasing on a fast pace accompanied by unemployment, pollution, inflation, etc.

The day was also observed at Community Health Centre in Sanhewal. Dr JP Singh, SMO, said there was a dire need to curb the increasing population.

Dr Geeta, SMO, Civil Hospital, Ludhiana, said: “A small family is a happy family and it takes the country on the path of progress.”