World Population Day 2020 | UPSC
HEADLINES:
World Population Day 2020
WHY IN NEWS:
Women suffered most as COVID-19 took a toll on reproductive health
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3: Population : UN
LEARNING:
For PRELIMS we have mentioned everything ! UNFPA , Theme , Celebrations and much more .
For MAINS go with the suggested reading link . You will find interesting analysis .
ISSUE:
WORLD POPULATION DAY 2020
- Human population has grown beyond Earth’s sustainable means.
- We are consuming more resources than our planet can regenerate, with devastating consequences.
- We are still adding an extra 80 million each year and are headed towards 10 billion by mid-century.
WHY WE CELEBRATE
- World Population Day (WPD), established by the United Nations Development Programme in 1989, falls on 11 July every year .
- By resolution 45/216 of December 1990, the United Nations General Assembly decided to continue observing World Population Day.
THEME 2020
SIGNIFICANCE OF THEME
- Women were deprived of abortion during the lockdown.
- They had to undergo unwanted pregnancies.
- They had to deliver babies at home.
- They had to face physical violence and some of them had to skip meals.
- The abortion rate was 47 per 1,000 women aged 15–49 years.
- 1.85 million women will be unable to access abortion services as a near-term impact of COVID-19, directly affecting their sexual and reproductive health.
- There are several reports highlighting the drop in institutional deliveries.
- Figures regarding access to contraceptive facilities tell a similar story.
POPULATION TRENDS
- It took hundreds of thousands of years for the world population to grow to 1 billion – then in just another 200 years or so, it grew sevenfold.
- The recent past has seen enormous changes in fertility rates and life expectancy.
- Meanwhile, average global lifespans have risen, from 64.6 years in the early 1990s to 72.6 years in 2019.
- These trends will have far-reaching implications for generations to come.

ADDRESSING THE ISSUE
- More people inevitably put more demands on the planet.
- More people require more food, water, sanitation, homes, public services, and amenities – but our Earth is struggling to cope.
- Populations of wild species have plummeted, global temperatures are rising, our seas are full of plastic and forests are disappearing.
- Humans are directly responsible for the sixth mass extinction and the climate crisis, the most serious environmental threats our planet has ever faced.
- We are already using the resources of more than one-and-a-half planets.
- Everyone has the right to a good quality of life and with increasing global affluence, our collective impact will increase even further.
BACKGROUND
- The Day was first marked on 11 July 1990 in more than 90 countries.
- Since then, a number of a number of UNFPA country offices and other organizations and institutions commemorate World Population Day, in partnership with governments and civil society.
UNFPA
UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.
UNFPA SUPPORTS
- Reproductive health care for women and youth in more than 150 countries.
- The health of pregnant women.
- Reliable access to modern contraceptives sufficient to benefit 20 million women a year.
- Training of thousands of health workers.
- Prevention of gender-based violence.
- Abandonment of female genital mutilation.
- Prevention of teen pregnancies.
- Efforts to end child marriage.
- Delivery of safe birth supplies.
- Censuses, data collection and analyses, which are essential for development planning
IASbhai WINDUP:
TOGETHER WE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT
- We can achieve a sustainable global population when communities, governments and organisations take action to encourage smaller families through choice, education, women’s empowerment, and easy access to family planning.
- By doing so, we can ensure that, in the future, everyone can have a decent standard of living on a healthy planet.
SOURCES:THE HINDU & PIB | World Population Day 2020 | UPSC
DISCOVER MORE : UN Observances
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