Four children are enough—Kaliati
Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare Patricia Kaliati has urged people in the country to limit child bearing to four per household, saying the country’s resources cannot sustain the growing population currently estimated at 16 million.
Speaking during the commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child and launch of 16 days of activism against gender based violence in Mulanje on Sunday, Kaliati urged girls to remain in school rather than opting for early marriages which stand at 78 percent in Mulanje district.
Four children are enough
“Times have changed, and we need to change. If you bear six or seven children today and each one of them bears the same number, where do you think resources to carter for their needs will come from? Where will they build houses and farm?”
She said at least four children are enough adding that government is making plans on how best the country can develop but, that cannot work if the number of children in families is not limited.
According to the Malawi Demographic and Health Survey (MDHS 2010), Malawi’s fertility rate stands at 5.7 children per woman, which is higher than the wanted fertility rate of 4.5 children per woman while the annual growth rate stands at 2.8 percent.
However, female students complained of lack of resources in schools. Through songs and poems, they said most schools in the district lack adequate resources like books.
A 2014 proposed programme model on ending child marriages in Southern Africa by the International Center for Research on Women and Plan
International shows that Malawi bears the 11th highest rate of child marriage globally and ranks second in the SADC sub-region.
The model says the prevalence of child marriage in Malawi exceeds significantly the sub-Saharan Africa regional average of 37 percent, with half of women aged 20-24 in Malawi are married by age 18, and almost 12 percent of girls are married by age 15.
According to the report the districts with the highest rates of child marriage and early sexual activity are Mulanje, Phalombe and Chikwawa, where around 80 percent reported being married by age 18 and around 90 percent were sexually active at age 18, while the lowest were Blantyre, Ntchisi and Rump
This is a very interesting subject, I guess my question to the honourable lady is, why four children as
opposed to 1, 2, or three children, how did she come up with her 4 magic number?
The point I am trying to make here is that we need to educate, encourage and motivate the masses to have the right number of children they can manage to sustain from early childhood up to their university education level.
In order to encourage or motivate families to have a specified number of children, what other countries like China did for example was to put some strict regulations that everybody including the president would abide to.
Until recently in China you could only have one child if you live in the cities and a maximum of two
children if you live in the villages. From this year they have made it level for everyone to have a maximum of two children regardless to where they live.
In Malawi becoz of our different cultures; from Lomwes, Yaos to Nyakyusas up north, it is
political suicide just to wake up one morning and start dictating numbers on how many children each family should have.
However I agree with the honourable lady that the current birth rate in Malawi is unsustainable. Malawi is one of the least developed countries in the world and the last thing we need is a huge population roaming around with no jobs or land. So the question is what should the govt do about this?
Well, here is my proposal, I repeat my proposal; first of all the govt should make going to school compulsory for every child in Malawi. Secondly the govt should abolish school fees from primary school to university for the first two children of each and every family. Families with more than two
children will have to pay school fees for the third, fourth etc. children they have from primary to university and the fees should be high enough to act as a deterrent.
By making education free for the first two children of each family, it would make parents to think twice if they can afford to pay from primary school to university for the extra children they would like to have. On the other hand, this policy would help those who have the resources to have whatever
number of children they want to have.
Akweni is on the right track here, no doubt.
But we need a POLICY on this issue, in this country. And the recommended number of children per family should be based on science, nothing else. The average husband and wife do actually understand ramifications of having more children than the resources available. But parents think the consequences are not serious; and may not be personal. Wrong.
Government needs to act on this issue stat. No cold feet!