Can Asia's population bomb be defused?

[PrinceAamir]

Yet, it is also in Asia that such countries as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, and Burma are the cause of serious demographic concern. The overall Asian population increased to rise to 3.6 billion and by 2025 to 4.5 billion. In 2025 Asia's population will continue to constitute nearly 60% of the world's population. Experts predict that what happens in Asia will largely determine the overall trends in world population. The population experts usually divide Asia into 2 regions, East Asia, such as Japan and China, have engineered dramatic fertility declines. China's population control efforts are probably the world's most sensational. China more than halved its birthrate from 34/1000 in 1970 to 16 in 1983 and hopes to reach 5/1000 by 2010. Most countries of South and West Asia, such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Burma, have annual birthrates of 45/1000, and it is these countries that can least afford such population growth. According to the UN, the biggest population increase in Asia over the next decade--more than 220 million--will be in India and its immediate neighbors. The current performance of the majority of Asian states in controlling population growth is discouraging.