'Udupi dist has balanced sex ratio'

District Health Officer Dr Ramachandra Bairy said Udupi district has a balanced ratio of birth and death rate with the total fertility rate of 0.98 per cent.

Speaking at the World Population Day-2012 celebrations organized by Zilla Panchayat in association with District Health and Family Welfare Department and Sri Khsetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Programme, the DHO said that world at present is undergoing the threat of population explosion which is severe than atomic explosion.

However, the problem which was under control till 1930 owing to various reasons like rampant communicable diseases, and wars is now posing severe threat.

It took nearly 1800 years for the population chart of the world to reach one billion as against 20 crores during 1st AD. It took 130 years for another billion to be added to the chart.

Third billion was added to the world population in the next 30 years. The fourth billion was added by another 15 years and it took merely 12 years for the world population to become five billion. By 1987 the population was 500 crores and it is expected to reach 800 crores benchmark by 2050, he said.

The DHO said that as per 1951 census, the population of India was 36 crores and by 2011 it reached 121 crores. There was 3.5 times increase in the population scale within 60 years. By 2050, India is expected to reach 250 crores.

Every year the entire population of Australian continent is added to India’s population number. Similarly Karnataka’s population during 1951 was 1.94 crores and by 2011 it reached 6.11 crores, he added.

Stating that Udupi district has moderately controlled birth and death rate, the DHO said that the district’s population was 1112243 during 2001 and it is 1177908 during 2011. There was increase of about 65,665 within 10 years. Of the 11,77,908 persons, about five to ten thousand are migrated people.

“We are successful in implementing family planning measures. However men are not cooperating with the family planning measures. It is always women who come forward to undergo family planning measures. Only 34 vasectomy cases were done last year.

Men should also shoulder the responsibilities in controlling the population,” he urged and added there are 955 girls for 1000 boys in the age group of 0-6 in the district.

There is a need for improvement in the societal status of the girls and also literacy rate among girls should increase for effective implementation of family planning measures,” he said.

The programme was inaugurated by Zilla Panchayat president Katpadi Shankar Poojary.