World Population Day; 9.3 Billion People…85 Percent In Developing Countries

The core issue of population is twofold. The issue of population was focused on the concern over the increasing number until the early 1990s. However, the focus is changing as to how to protect the rights of the `reproduction health` for the women in the developing countries.

- 9.3 billion by 2050? 1.5 billion in 1900, 3 billion in 1960, and 6 billion in 1999. What`s next? Compared with the last century, the speed of the population growth is slowing down. However, the UN Population Center estimates that the population will reach 9.3 billion by 2050 based on the increase of 77 million per year.

However, if the birth rate continues to increase in Africa, Middle East and Asia, the population can reach 10.9 billion by 2050, whereas if the birth rate declines, the population can halt at 7.9 billion.

Some of the developed countries show the minus growth rates of population. However, according to an analysis, 85 percent of the world population will live in the developing countries because a woman gives birth 4-7 children per average due to the religious reason, traditional custom, non-popularization of contraception, and illiteracy.

Professor Paul Kennedy of Yale University said, ``Although the absolute increase of population should be monitored, the fundamental problem is that the population increase disproportionately takes place in the developing countries and the wealth is also disproportionately attached to the developed countries.``

- Women’s lives are full of risk: According to the 2000 report by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), 514,000 women die as a result of the complications during pregnancy and childbirth. One woman per a minute dies as a result of childbirth worldwide. 99 percent of the maternity death occurs in the developing countries. The UNFPA also reported that more than 50 million women suffer chronic diseases and the physical disorder due to the pregnancy related complications.

78,000 women die every year due to the unsafe abortion operations. Especially, 350 million couples are not aware of the safe and cheap birth control methods.

Spread of AIDS is another urgent issue. 36.1 million people are AIDS infected as of the end of last year worldwide. 5.3 million people were estimated to be infected last year. Especially, there are 25.3 million AIDS infected people in Africa.

International organizations, such as the UN, seek to decline the birth rate and to reduce the maternity death rate through the supply of the birth control equipments, advertisement, and the campaign against the illiteracy along with the prevention of the AIDS spread. However, they are having difficulties due to the passive financial support from the developed countries.

- Case of South Korea: Since the family plan in 1961, the increase of population has settled down. The population in South Korea is estimated to be 47.6 million (1996). The speed of population increase is less than 1 percent. 1.42 children per woman are estimated to be born. However, the level of the rights of the reproduction health does not reach the level of the development countries. Lee Shi-Bak, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of Korea, said, ``Healthy pregnancy and child birth rights, especially women’s rights to decide the number of children and the age span between children, should be established.``

Jung Young-Gwan yongari@donga.com