Mary McDavid

Bangladesh has taken an education and resource–based approach to help control its rapidly growing population. This approach differs from many of the stricter, child-limiting policies, such as China’s one-child approach, which seem to be more well-known. Starting in the early 1970s, Bangladesh has been approaching their rapid population growth by emphasizing notions such as family planning and providing resources such as birth control more universally (Emmalyn Liwag Kotte et al.). Through this approach both governing officials and the media emphasized the advantages of having fewer kids by revealing the opportunities for greater economic stability, fewer responsibilities, and better parenting. The widespread emphasis of this knowledge, spread through door-to-door communication and mass media, created an impactful effect on the size of Bangladeshi families (www.dw.com). From around 1970 to modern day, the total fertility rate, the average amount of births per woman assuming that the current trends of average birth rate are consistent throughout that women’s time of fertility, dropped from an initially high 6.95 children to approximately 2.1 children now (Emmalyn Liwag Kotte et al.). This is especially impressive as a total fertility rate of 2.1 is considered to be the replacement level fertility rate which is the fertility rate needed to sustain a population and simply replace each generation. The impressively drastic results of fertility rate change in Bangladesh can be seen in the graph below: 

Although Bangladesh has faced success in reducing its total fertility rate, there have been many struggles along the way. Bangladesh is populated with a more conservative and primarily Muslim population (www.dw.com). Because of cultural standards and the protection of women, delivering information to Bangladeshi women has not always been the easiest process. Initially, Bangladeshi women were hard to connect with and oftentimes religious leaders would intervene family planning information being delivered to couples (www.dw.com). However, the government approached these issues by allowing religious leaders to be a part of the information sharing process. By incorporating religious leaders into the spread of family planning information, these barriers were able to be overcome. Now, with the emphasis on increased opportunity for education for both men and women, increased access to birth control, and an overall incentivization to have fewer kids, Bangladesh has been able to grab a hold of its population growth in a much more sustainable way than it was previously.  

Citations:  

New 27/01/2021 – by Emmalyn Liwag Kotte, Kotte, E., New 19/01/2021 – by Claudia Isabel Rittel, Rittel, C., Mweninguwe, 1., Mweninguwe, R., . . . Rizvi, N. (n.d.). How Bangladesh reduced the average number of children per woman to a mere 2.1. Retrieved February 05, 2021, from https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/how-bangladesh-reduced-average-number-children-woman-mere-21 

(www.dw.com), D. (n.d.). German Minister hails Bangladesh over birth Control: Dw: 13.11.2019. Retrieved February 05, 2021, from https://www.dw.com/en/german-minister-hails-bangladesh-over-birth-control/a-51229872#:~:text=To%20reduce%20population%20growth%2C%20Bangladesh,contraceptives%20to%20women%20for%20decades.&text=Statistics%20published%20by%20the%20Bangladesh,increased%20to%2063.1%25%20by%202018.