Speaker at a workshop called for creating awareness among the masses about the population control as the country has become sixth populous countries which was at ninth number in 1980s.

Speaker at a workshop called for creating awareness among the masses about the population control as the country has become sixth populous countries which was at ninth number in 1980s. It was echoed at the seminar titled " hazardous of over population and measure to reduce the mother maternity rate" arranged by the Department of Sociology, University of Agriculture Faisalabad in collaboration with Punjab Population Welfare Department. Chairing the session, UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that ever-increasing population was daunting matter that is aggravating many issue including the unemployment, food security, health problem, malnutrition, residence, decreasing agricultural land to colonies, etc. He said if the rate of population could not be slowed down, the population may double by 342 million people in Pakistan by 2050. He said if young people are unable to achieve their dreams, their energies may be directed towards undesirable activities. Talking about the gender mainstreaming, he said that it was an important issue. He said that the university was making all-out effort for the women empowerment and the gender mainstreaming. MPA Najma Afzal said that many initiatives were being taken to provide the state-of-the-art health facilities and to address the issues of women. She said Basic Heath Unit work has started working round the clock and 50,000 lady health workers have been regularized. She said that the government has declared punishment of six month jail and Rs 50,000 penalty for the child marriages. District Officer Population Welfare Dr Farkhanda Almas said that the 276 women out of 100,000 women in Pakistan die during their pregnancy. She said that it was the matter of concern that only 45 percent pregnant women go to doctors for consultancy and treatment . She said that fertility rate in Punjab is 3.58 percent whereas it is standing at 3.19 percent in Faisalabad. She said all out steps are being taken to aware the masses about the hazard of the increasing population. Dean Faculty of Social Sciences Prof Dr Iqbal Zafar said that lack of education was also a cause for the growing population. He said in Pakistan, high population growth is a threat to food security. He said that the growing population was a vast subject and it is the need of the hour to tackle it. Dr Adeeba Anwar from Allied Hospital said population explosion in the past decades had created many issue various sectors, particularly in the education and health. If we control population we can provide better health and education facilities to our children,”. Chairman Sociology Dr Ashfaq Ahmad Mann called for giving awareness about the population control in order to cope with the daunting issue like unemployment, and other problems.