The debate over the relationship of population and development is
now more than 200 years old, starting with the treatise on population by
Malthus, in 1798. The increase in population, ever since, has remained a
matter of concern for economists and development planners. The most
recent high point of the issue was witnessed at Cairo in September, 1994.
The conference which was attended by more than 10,000 persons from all
over the world ended with an agreement on the issues involved in the
growth of population and the economy. The outcome was a Plan of Action
for the next twenty years, which would concentrate on Reproductive Health
in order to obtain, “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing,
and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity in all matters
relating to the reproductive system and its functions and process”. This can
be a turn-around in global efforts for human health and welfare, if properly
implemented.