One child policy

The above is a picture of one section of Dhaka city. The city is expanding in such a way to accommodate more and more people coming from all corners of the country. During the 70's and the 80's power failure and water shortage was not that acute. Now groundwater level is going down every year, due to over exploitation. Open spaces are disappearing at an alarming rate, low lands, lakes are being filled up. After a heavy rainfall, there are no ways to drain the water. For the new generation born after 1990, this is becoming a hell. They cannot believe that only 25 to 30 years ago, we breathed clean air even in present day Shahbag intersection. We could move all around Dhaka by slow moving rickshaws in quiet streets. Traffic jams were seen only in certain areas.

In the last 35 years, population has almost become doubled, and still increasing at an alarming rate. Within the next 15 years, the population will reach approximately 200 million. It would be very hard to feed so many people in future; we have to spend huge foreign currency only to buy food for the people.

As population will also increase in our neighboring countries, they will start diverting the river flow more and more to grow more crops. Due to the heavy burden of overpopulation it would be impossible for us to move forward. Overpopulation will tarnish all our gains.

Now the question arises, should we undertake the "One Child Policy" for Bangladesh like that of China? There should be a serious debate on the issue. I think The Daily Star is a good place for this debate to begin.