Dr. Bahaa Helmy Writes: Population Growth and Development

The problem of population growth in Egypt requires more thought and effort to bring it under control by reducing the number of births, lowering the fertility rate from 3.5 children per family to 2 children per family by 2030. Egypt’s population currently exceeds one hundred million, not counting the children born to Egyptians abroad and those of unknown parentage. This is after the population was 21 million in 1950. The annual increase in the population over the last 4 years has reached 2.5 million, and if these rates continue, Egypt’s population will reach 125 million in 2030, and in 2050 it will be 175 million. This poses a great danger to development, for population growth aborts development and increases poverty and unemployment. Moreover, rates of population growth must be matched by economic growth, an educational and technical system and the opening of new markets at no less than three times the rate of population growth, in order to be able to achieve the desired development. This exceeds the accelerating growth rates witnessed by the Egyptian economy, which has undergone deep structural transformations and reforms that have borne very good fruit, whether in terms of economic growth or the increase in monetary reserves, or in terms of carrying out huge projects in infrastructure, industry, production, exports, agriculture and all the fields that contribute to the welfare of the citizen. However, population growth at the previous rates is capable of devouring the rates of economic growth, which prompted the government to launch some initiatives such as (Two Is Enough), with the aim of promoting the concept of the appropriate family whose children can be raised in an acceptable educational environment, state of health and standard of living, and of correcting some of the mistaken notions prevailing in society. We will not stop sounding the alarm, because the initiative put forward by the government, and any new initiatives, will not achieve what is intended for two main reasons. The first: the illiteracy rate, which is close to 26% of the population; and the second: the retreat of some religious scholars and clerics from the idea of birth control because of their limited culture and their lack of conviction. Illiteracy rates are highest in the governorates of Upper Egypt, followed by Lower Egypt; consequently, culture is absent and ignorance prevails in the poorest communities, which makes them fertile ground for entrenching mistaken inherited beliefs and notions. The scene is teeming with many hadiths, sayings and fatwas that prohibit birth control as being contrary to God’s law. These are spread and circulated through some places of worship and schools or through social media, especially YouTube, which through simple videos has managed to penetrate illiteracy and entrench ignorance in some places where the rates of illiteracy, poverty and disease are high. We believe that results on the ground in reducing the number of births and curbing population growth in Egypt cannot be achieved unless religious scholars and clerics, teachers, doctors, the media and civil society join together in leading a long-term and evolving awareness campaign through mosques, churches, schools, health units and convoys, and by using visual and audio electronic means to counter the ideas and fatwas spread on the various sites that instil in people the fear of violating religious teachings and urge them not to practise birth control. The religious establishment’s adoption of an initiative of enlightenment, correcting mistaken notions and highlighting the importance of birth control and its benefits for the family and society is the only way to limit population growth and for everyone to enjoy the results of economic growth and the hoped-for prosperity.