World Population Day and plight of women

World Population Day was observed yesterday in The Gambia by the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) with a rally and a symposium, on the theme: “Vulnerable population in emergencies: protecting the life of women and girls in emergencies at all times”.

The day is an international level awareness campaign being celebrated all over the world to call people on stage to know the reason of our exploding population year by year as well as focus on how to solve the problems of the rapid increasing population faced with by nations and the world in general.

This event is to “bring a population revolution globally as well as breaking sleep of all the deeply slept people to pay their full attention” and help in combating population issues.

Whilst the day is being observed, the condition under which most of the population of 7 billion people around the world live is appalling as the people, especially women and girls, operate in dire condition and face serious inequalities in many respects and vocations.

Women are the most vulnerable when disaster strikes, during conflicts and harsh economic condition. They also suffer most in the homes to keep the household together, especially when incomes are meagre.

“When disaster arises, women and children are the most vulnerable ones,” said a KMC official, adding that women and girls suffer the brunt of inequalities in life.

They make do with unequal power relations, and grapple with the vulnerability of poverty and dependency, as well as lack of access to basic social services including reproductive healthcare services.

Some facts about World Population Day

World Population Day is a great event being celebrated all through the world annually on 11 July. It is celebrated to increase the awareness of the people towards the worldwide population issues. It was first started in the year 1989 by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It was exalted by the interest of the public when the global population became near about five billion at 11 July in the year 1987.

The aim of the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme is paying great attention towards the reproductive health problems of the community people as it is the leading cause of the ill health as well as the death of the pregnant women worldwide. It has been distinguished that around 800 women are dying daily in the procedure of giving birth to a baby. The campaign of the World Population Day every year increases the knowledge and skills of the people worldwide towards their reproductive health and family planning.

Around 1.8 billion youngsters are entering to their reproductive years and it’s very necessary to call their attention towards the primary part of the reproductive health. According to the statistics, it is noted that the world population on 1st of January 2014 has been reached to 7,137,661,030. The annual celebration of world population day is planned with lots of activities and events to make aware people about the reality.

“Close to a billion people – one-eighth of the world’s population – still live in hunger. .”

Jonathan Sacks