KABUL (SW) – Up to 90 per cent married women in Afghanistan have knowledge of contraceptives, but only 23 per cent of them opt for birth control means, officials said in connection with the World Population Day here on Tuesday.
Ahmad Khan Naeem, director at the Ministry of Public Health, said on the occasion the use of contraceptives is likely to surge to 30 per cent by the year 2020.
Addressing the moot, Mustafa Mastoor, minister at the Ministry of Economy, said the figures provided by the Central Statistics Organization suggest the annual population growth has swollen from 230,000 per year in 1968 to 675,000 in 2018. He said with this rate of population growth, the country’s population would double by the year 2050.
The minister feared under such circumstances when the economic growth is much less, the rapid population growth would cause many issues.
The commemoration took place under the global theme of “Family Planning is a Human Right”. The UNFPA State of the World Population Report in 2017 warned that unless inequality is urgently tackled and the poorest women are empowered to make their own decisions about their lives, countries could face unrest and threats to peace and to their development goals.
“Investments in family planning in Afghanistan are critical not only to reduce maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality but also to reduce fertility and the dependency ratio and as a result improve the social and economic well-being of families and communities”, said Dr. Bannet Ndyanabangi, UNFPA Representative.
According to the Afghanistan Demographic and Health Survey, only 23 per cent of currently married women use a method of contraceptive, while there is evidence that 25% of married women have an unmet need for family planning in Afghanistan. On the other hand, early and child marriage, high fertility rates with little birth spacing contributes to the striking high maternal mortality in Afghanistan, that is currently the highest in the region and is estimated at about 661 per 100,000 live births (Afghanistan MoPH unofficial estimate).
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