100 million citizens, a blessing or a curse ... The controversy of the population explosion has been renewed in Egypt since the 1960s

Mohamed Abdullah - Cairo

After its population reached one hundred million people, the Egyptian government declared a state of alert to confront what it described as the "danger of a population explosion", and called for the concerted efforts of all the ministries concerned, to confront the crisis that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi considers a threat to national security and no less dangerous than terrorism. He said.

The number of Egyptians is expected to reach 192 million by the year 2052, according to Minister of Planning Hala Al-Saeed, due to the high birth rates of 3.4 births per woman.

Despite successive Egyptian governments adopting "family planning" programs since the mid-1960s, and monitoring health, media, artistic and religious programs in cooperation with international institutions and bodies, they were all unable to control the reins of population growth, except in some short periods.

While the government raises alarm bells and declares the highest alert to face what it called the population explosion, experts and specialists talk about the importance of large manpower and its role in the progress of countries, as is the case with many countries, especially China, as the population is the main pillar for achieving development.

Deterrent actions

The government is preparing a "national project for family planning" that targets 72 centers (the center often includes a major city and dozens of towns and villages) through family planning centers and fixed and mobile caravans, where indicators revealed that every minute, Egypt increases by 3.3 people, which results in an increase of more From 1.7 million individuals per year.

With the aim of enjoining citizens to have more than two children, Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly said in previous statements that the state is taking measures to support its restriction to only two children per family, whether in terms of subsidized food commodities or a "solidarity and dignity" project, to support the groups the poorest.

A professor of sociology at Ain Shams University, Samia Khadr, called for the necessity of finding radical solutions to the crisis, and successive governments held the responsibility of leaving "matters on their face", assuring Al-Jazeera Net that "the population problem is extremely dangerous, because whatever is achieved from development it will be devoured by the population increase."

Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Samia said that "there is no one in the Arab world who has not seen films of mouths, rabbits and mother of the bride, as there was a strong shipment to solve the crisis since the 1960s with literature, art, drama and songs, but now programs on satellite channels are a waste of time and thought."

This failure prompted Mervat Moussa, the member of the Health Committee in the House of Representatives, to admit that the issue has been in its place for decades. .

Moussa explained that the rates of population increase have increased recently due to the passage of the country by "two revolutions", in addition to the lack of means of family planning, noting that the lack of them in pharmacies and their restriction to health units contributed to this inflation.

She emphasized that the most important element in family planning is "availability", meaning that the means of organization are provided in the nearest places and the cheapest price if not free, pointing out that now they are not present in pharmacies except at high prices, which poor families will not buy.

She called for the adoption of positive support for those who have two children, adding, "I do not say the negative, because it cannot be said that free education is limited to two children because of its unconstitutionality," calling for complementarity and coordination between ministries and relevant authorities so that responsibility is not wasted among all, and provide small projects for poor families to provide safety for women .

Human wealth

At a time when the government sounded the alarm, experts praised what they called the large and young manpower that Egypt has abundant, as it is a vital fuel for development.

The economist and head of the Forum for Added Value added, Ahmed Khazim, criticized the case of intimidation from the crisis of overpopulation, and denounced in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net the government exploited the population increase in collecting taxes to finance the state budget, and not using it in development and increasing production.

Khazayem explained that there are two schools in the administration of economics, the first is the school of development with added value, and the second, the voluntary school (taxation), the first, human resources is one of the most important factors in increasing production, such as China, as the human factor, land and capital, if optimally employed, leads to that. To the recovery and growth of any economy in the world.

The economist added that the second school is the voluntary school, which is always preoccupied with support and taxes, and whenever it needs revenue that extends its hand in the pockets of people, the human factor is a burden on it to employ, but not a burden in its exploitation through taxes.

Khazayem said that whoever considers the population increase as a crisis is a person or administration that does not know the best use of human resources, like the rest of other natural resources, stressing that old Europe now opens its doors to selective migration because it has lost the ability to regenerate.