Social Problem, Not Technical, In Population

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30802, 14 July 1965, Page 2

Social Problem, Not Technical, In Population

The major problem in checking world population growth was social, not technical, as scientific methods of birth control had advanced rapidly, but their success depended to a large extent on the sense of family values in a community, Dr. C. Gray, head of the sociology department of the University of Canterbury, told members of the Federation of University Women, in Christchurch yesterday.

" Ways of limiting families had long been known and practised—including late marriage, abortion and even infanticide—but where high value was placed on a very large family, there would be no desire to reduce numbers, said Dr. Gray.

Some family systems were conducive to high fertility. In countries in which growth of population posed a serious problem, often a woman gained importance in a family as soon as she began to bear children: a large family might rate higher status in a community, and often many children were wanted to help work on the land. Even if attempts to change such family values—to promote the desire for fewer children—were successful, a number of decades would pass before population increases levelled off and the population number stabilised, said Dr. Gray.

Dr. Gray led a panel discussion on the challenge of world population growth and control. This will be the theme of the fifteenth trien-

nial conference of the International Federation of University Women in Brisbane next month, and delegates are making preliminary studies of aspects of the subject. Death Control The lowering of the death rate, rather than an increase in the birthrate, was causing the present rapid growth In world population. Dr. Gray said. In Europe, methods of death control were invented and discovered over a long period in which the economic growth of countries was steady enough to keep ahead of the growth in population. Today, however, inexpensive methods of "death control” could be imported by countries which had not first established a sound economic foundation capable of supporting a much larger population. In recent times; tremendous amounts had gone into saving lives. Drugs were relatively cheap: the World Health Organisation had “done miracles” on a small budget, Dr. Gray said. In Ceylon alone, the death rate had been cut in half in less than five years, by the wining out of malaria. Peoples were very quick to accept death control methods: “If you tell people you can save their children’s lives, and demonstrate it, they will soon be convinced and the word will spread.” But it was not so easy to convince them of the benefits of family planning and birth control. Lag in Economy

Some developing nations, although they were making heroic efforts to improve their economy, were still not able to increase their standard of living in the race against population growth. The Aswan Dam would Increase Egypt’s economy by 30 per cent, but in the 10 years before it will be completed, the country’s population will increase 33 per cent. Dr. Gray said. Great efforts were also being made in India, but the neople were poorer than before. In five years food production had been increased by

2| per cent, but population had increased by 12| per cent. Some persons held the view that we were unduly worried by the growth of the world population, and that the earth’s resources were only just beginning to be tapped. But these resources were not equally distributed, and some areas which needed help most could still remain poor unless the world's social structures changed to enable a more even distribution, he said. Other speakers were Mrs M. Kidd, who has lived in Ghana, Miss M. Mullan, who has spent a number of years in South India, and Miss L. Coleman, who spoke on North Borneo.