Professional Documents
Culture Documents
P7
Special Essay:
special essay
n Malawi, as in many other African countries, children are equated to wealth, such that the more children you have, the wealthier you are supposed to be. This is probably why, culturally, people never discuss the everincreasing population problem that currently threatens the countrys development. Contrast this situation with China, which has made tremendous progress in controlling its population growth, thereby improving its economic status. Through its policy of one-child-per-family, China has managed to uplift about 400 million of its people from poverty in the past 10 years. As such, the country has managed to cater for its population from increased economic growth, while Malawi continues to wallow in poverty. Abject poverty is really haunting us as a country. Most demographers agree that the world does not have enough food to feed the ever-increasing populations, nor does it have enough resources to lift Third World populations from poverty. This means our unabated population increase is further degenerating us into poverty. It is estimated that about 80 percent of the countrys population lives on less than one dollar a day. Being one of the worlds poorest countries, it is certainly retrogressive that Malawi should still have a high birth rate. According to the 2010 Demographic Health Survey (DHS), a woman in Malawi will give birth to an average of 5.7 children in her lifetime. The countrys population of about 15 million is estimated to reach 60 million in 2050. This inevitably means that illiteracy rates will continue to be high, infrastructure inadequate and health services rudimentary. Malawi is growing fast because it is young, with 54 percent of the countrys population being below the age of 18, according to the DHS. Given the high birth rates, it is likely that many of these people will have big families, knowing that despite ongoing efforts to combat malnutrition and HIV, there is a strong risk that their children will die. Experts say the most tangible result of population growth in the country is a shift from rural to urban areas. Currently, about nine out of 10 people still live in rural areas and depend on farming to survive. But as people, especially the youth, increasingly move from the rural to the city, the situation will also pose new challenges of providing urban jobs, housing, energy and infrastructure to mitigate urban poverty, expansion of slums and a deterioration of the urban environment. At a time when climate
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Family planning at family level may not the best intervention in slowing population explosion in a country defined by extended families. What could be the solution, then? EPHRAIM NYONDO writes.
he house leaks when it rains. Its two windows one for the sitting room and the other for the only bedroomare covered by some fading black plastic papers that darken the house even during a sunny midday. In a usual version of the story, you would expect this house to belong to a bachelor or a spinster. Or, for worse, not more than three people occupying it. Yet, this house in Mpunga Village, Traditional Authority Ndindi, a one and half hour drive from Salima boma, belongs to a married couple with seven children. This is what we could manage, says Lakumizinga Theni, looking at the ground while seated on the khonde. Her husband does not have a job. Lake Malawi is almost 10 kilometres from the house, and fishing has been his main source of income. But the dwindling fish stocks over years coupled with increased number of fishers forced Theni to diversify to farming. Yet, even in the maize they grow, with seven children to feed, clothe and educate, the going is rough. We are strugglingvery hard. The family is too big for our income, continues Theni. But her family was not that big just a year ago. In a rural village setting where a womans fertility rate, according to the 2010 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), hovers at 6.1 compared to 4.0 in urban areas, Thenis family was a shining light of change. They only have two sons. Of course, their having two sons is not out of choice. The two decided to stop to safeguard the wifes health as she always gave birth through Caesarean section. My husband agreed we should not have any more children. But no one in our village understands it. As women, we are supposed to give more children to our husband. Some have eight, nineeven more than that sometimes, she says. This means if it were not for her health, the Thenis, who will be celebrating eight years in marriage this August, could
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all him Joe or Rasta, as his friends prefer calling him. The 20-year-old is one of many youthful Malawians doing menial work to survive the effects of scarce job opportunities amid rapid population growth. When we met in Limbe recently, he was screaming at people to board a minibus to Mbayani, Chirimba, Chileka Roundabout and Lunzu via Blantyre central business district. Such were his hoarse exclamations that he fears his vocal chords are already torn. His profession is illegal. Police officers arrest him almost monthly following Operation Dongosolo which saw vendors and minibus callers expelled from the streets of Malawi in 2006. Minibus touts have been playing hide-and-seek with police officer for seven years, but if I allow them to stop me working, I will be my neighbours laughing stock. I dont want to go begging for food, clothes and housing, says the young man who quit school in Form One four years ago. Typical of the countrys highspeed urbanisation, the young Malawian left his home in the rural parts of Chiradzulu in search of better chances in life, but minibus touting has left him haunted by running battles with the police, monthly arrests, demeaning comments from passersby, alcoholism, poor body hygiene, accusation of crimes happening on the streets and lots more things he refuses to share. A population puzzle With the 2008 Housing and Population Census showing that the country is home to 15 million people, the issue of minibus touts could be more than just about lapses in law and order in the countrys cities. City residents, city council executives and police spokespersons commend the crackdown on Joe and company with reducing crime, noise, garbage and congestion in major towns. However, the influx of the youthful minibus callers could be just a tip of rapid population growth in a country where limited economic opportunities and social services are under pressure. In 2005, the State-funded Integrated Household Survey showed about 80 percent of Malawians are employed in the agricultural sector, the backbone of the countrys economy. However, Joe says he left his village in Chiradzulu District, which has 300 000 people, because land is becoming
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EPHRAIM NYONDO News Analyst
alawis population has grown rapidly from about four million in 1966 to almost 15 million in 2012. UN population projections further warn that figures could easily reach 24 million in 2025 and 47 million in 2050 if families continue to have, on average, six children. This rise, on the other hand, should not just be seen from a negative prism. In 1965, Emily Boserup, a Danish economist, pushing necessity is the mother of all invention theory, asserted that an increase in population would stimulate technologists and scientists to increase food production. Any increase in population would increase the demand for food and so act as an incentive to change agrarian (farming) technology and produce more food, she wrote. This may explain Genetically Modified Foods (GMO) and various agricultural technologies the world has witnessed since the 1970s? In fact, Boserups descendants, using the example of the rise of Chinathe worlds most populous nationfurther argues that a big population is necessary because it provides enough labour and market for production processes. However, for a country like Malawi, whose production capacity is low and almost 80 percent of the people are rooted to a small piece of customary land, deriving their livelihood from rain-fed agriculture, containing population, says Martha Kwataine, is a must. Kwataine, executive director of Malawi Health Equity Network (Mhen), says: There is tremendous pressure on resources which are not expanding. We must contain the [population] growth or our development agenda will be derailed, she says. Containing Malawis population growth begins with understanding what fuels it. Experts point, mostly, to two factors. One, a decline in mortality experienced since the 1950s due to improvements in
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Parliament recently passed the Gender Equality Bill. What is in it for women and calls for children by choice, not by chance? JAMES CHAVULA writes.
or Gertrude Patel, some of her five children are haunting blessings. I wish I had one or two children, but babies kept coming unexpectedly, says Patel, 31, a resident of Mbeluko Village, sub-T/A Khwethemule, Thyolo, who adopted family planning after her latest childbirth last year. The woman admittedly chose Norplant contraceptive method after joining star circles. Organised by Creative Centre for Community Mobilisation (Crecom), members of the village-based discussion groups meet every week to discuss community action against harmful cultural practices, gender inequalities and reproductive health issues. She says having the liberty to choose when to have children finally makes her free to look after herself, family members and a small-scale business. If Patels wishes for the unreached were laws, 2008 census would not have recorded that a Malawian woman is likely to have nearly six children in a lifetime. In January this year, President Joyce Banda described the fertility rate as considerably high and development challenge, saying: We must make more to make family planning a critical pillar of its maternal health programmes. Despite the tough talk, Patel wishes women had a say on matters affecting their sexual and reproductive health, including when to have children. She wishes they had access to information on birth control at a time the 2010 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey (MDHS) shows about half of the women population has no access to contraceptives. It is in our culture that a couple cannot start family planning with one child or two,
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Pushpa Jamieson Contributor
ne of the most frequently asked questions by a nation of its government is: What is the government doing to provide better services for its people? While this is a very valid question, we need to also ask: What part is the nation playing to make this possible? Government providing a service for the people is very much like undertaking any other business. The logical thing is first to find out what people need and then to provide it adequately. The government, just like a business person, knows the story about demand and supply. Normally, as demand for a product continues to grow, so must production increase to meet the needs of the consumer. Unfortunately, this is where service provision and business sense part ways. Meeting the needs of people by ensuring that everyone has access to basic essential services such as schools, health facilities, food, water, clothes and all the other basic things that a person needs in order to live as a human being is certainly what any government should be aiming to achieve. The reality at the moment is that no matter how much the government is investing in these essential public services, it is not satisfactorily meeting the needs of the people. The demand for services is far greater than what is available because the services are failing to keep up with the demands of such a fast and rapidly growing population. It is a given fact that no matter how much the government ploughs into services, it will not be able to keep up with the population demands. The number of people that are accessing these services far outweighs what is being invested. There needs to be a conscious decision made by individuals to play their part in making public services available, accessible and of good quality. There is a certain responsibility that individuals should take upon themselves to make this possible. It cannot be left to the government alone to provide these essential services because, no matter what is done to meet the demand made by the people, this will never happen if the population continues to outgrow the viability of service provision. Supply of services will never meet the demand of people if they do not come on board and individually realise their own responsibility in the matter and effectively play their part. It is a fact that as our population continues to grow fast and at such an alarming rate, it will not be possible for basic services such as hospitals and schools to cater and meet the demands of the people. At present, research on
Malawi has a population that is growing at a pace that cannot be sustained by service provision or even land availability. This land that we have called Malawi is not growing; it is the same area that will have to cater for 60 million people in the year 2050 at the current growth rate. As shocking as this may sound, it is worth a thought for all of us So? Is the rapid population growth my problem; should I care about rapid population growth in Malawi; is it my responsibility to try to play a part in slowing this unsustainable growth? The answer is: It sure is! unless you do not care about what will happen to the future generations of Malawi. The rapid population has to be the concern of every person, and every person should play their part in making sure the future is a better place because You and I cared. n
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