We are told and regularly reminded that over 60% of Ghanaians are Christians. One can therefore deduce that with their faith, this number of Ghanaians believe in the Bible.
So, what would these faithful believers make of God’s command at the time of creation as found in Genesis 9:7, “As for you, be faithful and increase in number, multiply on earth and increase upon it” as against what we heard this week that childbirth in the country needs to be restricted?
Early this week, the National Population Council, (NPC) was in the news, proposing that childbirth in our backyard is restricted to a maximum of three children per couple. This, they said, is to ensure quality development and management of the country’s population.
In relation to this, a civil society organisation, Social Marketing Foundation, has also stuck their neck into the call suggesting that government should rather limit the birth rate to two children per couple.
In scanning through the media this week, one sees threats from a youth in a community to go on strike should a private company be allowed to mine bauxite in their forest. While some Veterinary Technicians have threatened to picket at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to demand postings, some Volta Chiefs have gone wild over bad roads and some Konkombas in the Brong-Ahafo Region run riot and attacked Fulanis in the area. However, I have not as yet sighted a group threatening against both the NPC’s proposal and that of the Social Marketing Foundation to regulate childbirth.
Population growth
The real facts of the argument are that the country’s population is growing at an alarming rate of 2.5 per cent annually for the past three decades against a global acceptable rate of 1.5 per cent. This, according to the NPC, translates to between 700,000 and 800,000 people yearly.
Already we know that as per the 2016 Ghana Statistical survey, Ghana’s population is a little over 28 million. Ordinarily, for a country with a land size of 238,535 kilometres, almost as big as that of the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) 242,495 kilometres and a population of over 65 million people, we should be fine and not sound panicky.
The crux of the matter however, is whether we have the means to cater adequately and provide the needed economic development for all? Would we be able to meet the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals?
Certainly not. There are sound arguments from experts that regulating population growth is good for any country, especially for developing countries such as ours. Per the argument, in order for a sound economic management, we need a national policy on population growth so that a country can apportion its resources equitably. Such resources include schools, health facilities, electricity and water supply, jobs, good roads and many more others.
Good as it may sound, how practical would it be and how would our people receive a policy regulating childbirth in our current state where policies do not mean much and better still where even with clear-cut laws for our own health and safety, lawlessness and indiscipline has swallowed us to the neck?
It may prove a tough one to implement but I guess on the principle of everything is possible, the answer lies in the length and depth of the education we would be ready to invest in and the social marketing programmes that would take place to cause a major shift in beliefs and attitudes.
Social marketing programmes
This is where I would support the NPC’s suggestion that to effectively regulate the fertility of the country, we should introduce a reward package for those who would take family planning initiatives such as spacing and delaying childbirth. Here, one may want to question the effectiveness of all the social marketing programmes and campaigns embarked on in the 1990s? What effect did all those intensive campaigns have on controlled childbirth if today we are hearing that our population’s growth is unhealthy vis-à-vis the global acceptable rate?
In the urban areas, a policy on birth control might work as already, economic pressures and squeezed incomes are forcing families to restrict the number of children they plan for. However, in the rural areas, the picture might seem different.
These are areas where school drop-outs are very high and the “dropped-out” girls tend to be victims of teenage pregnancies. Additionally, though not proved by any scientific research, the impression is that polygamy is rife in the rural areas and the men who engage in it find their social status enhanced by the number of children they produce.
Pluses and minuses
Whichever way one looks at it, regulating childbirth has its pluses and minuses based on experiences of countries that have used such regulation.
Germany, China and India are known to have legislated to control childbirth. However, both China and Germany are beginning to have withdrawal symptoms as they have resorted to reviewing their policies to reflect current situations. The last we heard, China, the world’s most populous country is now considering introducing reward packages and subsidies to encourage people to have a second child after their one-child-per-couple policy introduced some years ago.
Germany, as we understand now, pays couples benefits that graduate upwards to benefit additional children had. For example, the country pays a couple 192 Euros for the first child until he or she is 25 years, while for a second child they pay 198 Euros and 223 Euros for every child thereafter, according to The Ghanaian Times edition of August 22, 2017.
So, where will Ghana go from here? Should we heed to the proposal to regulate childbirth or intensify campaigns and reward measures for those who want to space childbirth, or better still do nothing but rather let the economic pressures of the day dictate the pace for us?
Reality Zone
…with Vicky Wireko-Andoh (vicky.wireko-andoh@todaygh.com)