Policy to help slow population growth q

THE national population policy is about slowing down population growth by giving better choices to people to manage their lives, National Planning Minister Charles Abel says.
Abel told The National that the more educated people were, the better choices they made about the number of children they wanted to have.
“We don’t want our population to blow right out before people start realising and slowing down a little bit,” he said.
“There’s no force imposed. As people get more educated, they have fewer children.
“Like Japan, they have a negative growth rate now, as the more developed the country gets, the population slows down.
“What we want to do is make the choices accessible to you, no one is forcing you but you make an educated choice as you have access to family planning.”
Abel said the population policy was one of the key policies the department was elevating as a priority.
Population growth is one of the underlying issues.
“Too many people lead to conflicts, war and environmental degradation,” he said.
“In the key government targets and indicators, human development is the first index followed by population.”