In Family Planning, Education is Key

The Christian Science Monitor, July 2, 2003

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

Regarding your June 17 article "Bangladeshi clerics back family planners": Our success in lowering the population growth rate was achieved not simply by pushing population control, as your article seems to argue, but by a host of other changes, such as increases in female literacy and earning opportunities, which created a desire for smaller families and a demand for family-planning services. Bringing fertility down to replacement level now requires increased investment in girls' and women's education, health, and employment, and more concerted action to protect their human rights.
 
Rounaq Jahan
Southern Asian Institute, Columbia University
New York

Originally published in the Christian Science Monitor. Reprinted with permission.