World Population Day
World Population Day is an annual event celebrated on July 11 every year to raise awareness of World Population Issues.
It is a United Nations initiative to bring awareness of various issues related to the exploding population and the importance of family planning, gender equality, poverty, maternal health, and human rights.
The Day was established by the then-Governing Council of the UN Development Programme in 1989, an outgrowth of the interest generated by the Day of Five Billion, which was observed on 11 July 1987. The day: proposed and recommended by Dr. KC Zachariah in which population touches Five Billion when he operated as Sr Demographer at World Bank.
Every year, the United Nations chooses a different theme for the event, such as caring for the elderly or investing in adolescent girls. The theme of World Population Day 2022 according to UNFPA, was to focus on how to safeguard the health and rights of women and girls now and putting the brakes on COVID-19.
In this third year of COVID-19, we are suspended in an in-between state, where parts of the world are emerging from the deep recesses of the pandemic while others are locked in battle with the coronavirus as access to vaccines remains a distant, deadly reality.
The objective of World Population Day is to expand awareness among the people on various population issues such as the significance of reproductive health, family planning, gender equality, poverty, maternal health, and the rights of humans. The agency emphasizes that women must be empowered educationally, economically, and politically to exercise choice over their bodies and fertility.
Nine standards to uphold the human right to family planning:
Non-discrimination: Family planning information and services cannot be restricted on the basis of race, sex, language, religion, political affiliation, national origin, age, economic status, place of residence, disability status, marital status, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
Available: Countries must ensure that family planning commodities and services are accessible to everyone.
Accessible: Countries must ensure that family planning commodities and services are accessible to everyone.
Acceptable: Contraceptive services and information must be provided in a dignified manner, respecting both modern medical ethics and the cultures of those being accommodated.
Good quality: Family planning information must be clearly communicated and scientifically accurate.
Informed decision-making: Every person must be empowered to make reproductive choices with full autonomy, free of pressure, coercion, or misrepresentation.
Privacy and confidentiality: All individuals must enjoy the right to privacy when seeking family planning information and services.
Participation: Countries have an obligation to ensure the active and informed participation of individuals in decisions that affect them, including health issues.
Accountability: Health systems, education systems, leaders, and policymakers must be accountable to the people they serve in all efforts to realize the human right to family planning.
Celebration of World Population Day
World population day is celebrated at the international level by combining a variety of activities and events to draw consideration of masses to work together on the issues of the growing population. There are main issues such as, how we can control the population and how we can stop population explosion in certain territories.
“Controlling the population today will reflect in its benefits in our tomorrow.”
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