The growth in population has
been caused not by sudden increase in fertility. This has been caused due to
advance in medical and ancillary science and the consequent decrease in the
death rate. The other causes for the growth of population in Pakistan are
poverty, lack of education, early marriages, particularly among the rular
population and general attitude of the people towards family. Children are
considered gift and blessing of God. Practical application of family planning
methods is not so popular among the people.
The government has not been able to prevent the growth rate in spite of family
planning program due to lack of practical use of birth control methods. The
government has admitted its failure to limit the population to the proposed
target. Rapid population growth is also tending to overuse of the country's
natural resources, particularly in rural areas where majority of the people
depending on agriculture for their livelihood. With rapidly increasing
population, agricultural holdings are becoming smaller and unproductive. With
rapidly growing population it is becoming difficult to manage adjustments
relating to economic and social changes. Urbanisation trend is creating such
problems as housing, power, water, and transport problem. Rapidly increasing
population to an increased demand for food products, clothes, houses etc is also
plunging the economy into large scale of unemployment and under employment. With
increasing the population, proportion of worker to total population is also
rising. Rapidly growing population is also leading to environmental damage.
Scarcity of land is pushing a large number of people to ecologically sensitive
areas such as hill sides and tropical forests.