Written by Mahmoud Hussein
Sunday, February 12, 2023 06:03 PM
A number of members of the House of Representatives called for the issuance of legislation to enact marriage, criminalize child marriage, increase the penalty for dropping out of education, and confront child labor to confront the issue of overpopulation, during a meeting of the House of Representatives Health Affairs Committee headed by Dr. Ashraf Hatem, to discuss the population issue in light of the vision of the political leadership and in support of the efforts The state to find radical solutions to face the problem of overpopulation and reduce its repercussions.
And Dr. Ahmed Al-Arjawi, member Health Affairs CommitteeHe stressed the importance of persuasion, awareness, and distancing from slogans, pointing out that the family planning departments in the governorates have become ordinary departments, and he asked: Where is the role of the National Population Council, which is supposed to have a statistical role?
He continued, “We still have the largest party that is supposed to support reproductive health programs, the clergy. We build and in only one sermon can calm everything, and we must shift to teaching reproductive health in all different educational stages, especially in adulthood and adolescence, because there are major problems of genetic diseases due to Not examining before marriage, and attention must be given to natural childbirth.
Meanwhile, Representative Talaat Abdel-Qawi, a member of the House of Representatives, said, “I have been in the parliament since 1990 and I was the deputy of the committee in 2000, and we were discussing this issue and we are still discussing it and we have reached imminent danger, and we are still dealing with issues in a way that includes luxury, and there is a gap between population growth and economic growth in The rate of population growth has been significantly higher than economic growth.
He pointed out that the causes of population increase are early marriage, illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, frequent childbearing, and the economic value of the child, and continued: The solution requires political will, and a funded strategic and executive plan that is implementable.
And he added, “The political will is present in the political leadership, but is it present on behalf of the entire government, and is it present on behalf of the governors? This issue is decentralized and each province has its own circumstances.”
He stressed the necessity of issuing a law criminalizing early marriage, to prevent marriage of children under 18 years of age, and dropping out of education, especially for girls, and a law to confront child labor, problems that need to be dealt with seriously, raise awareness and provide services, and provide positive incentives for doctors to work in family planning.
For his part, Dr. Makram Radwan, a member of the committee, said, “We need legislation to determine the age of marriage, raise the age and educate people that this is for a temporary period due to population increase and the consequent dangers, and deterrent legislation must be issued to drop out of education.”
Radwan added that dealing with the issue of overpopulation must be done in a decentralized manner, as every village and every family has a treatment.
Representative Laila Abu Ismail said, “The political will is there and the thought is there, but the problem is in the implementation on the ground. There must be binding recommendations and decisive decisions.”
Dr. Muhammad Al-Ammari, Undersecretary of the Health Affairs Committee, said that the issue of population increase is a very important file, and before selecting the health team that works on this issue, this team must be convinced, and citizens must be made aware of the seriousness of the issue.
