World Population Day is an annual event, celebrated on 11 July every year. It is an initiative to spread awareness across the globe about population issues.
The major purpose of World Population Day 2022 is to raise awareness about child marriage, gender equality, human rights, and the importance of family planning among other issues.
According to a report, presently, the world population is about 7.96 billion and it is expected to increase by nearly 8.5 billion in 2030.
On World Population Day 2022, let’s raise awareness of the importance of SRHR around the world and how we protect and empower present and future generations. Global efforts to tackle the pandemic continue, as the world population continues to rise with unequal access to healthcare.
The theme of World Population Day 2022 is for a universe of 8 billion which expects a strong future for all guaranteeing freedom and decisions for all.
According to the theme, there are around 8 billion individuals living on earth however not every one of them is getting rights and opportunities. Many individuals still face harassment, discrimination and violence on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, class, religion, disability and country of origin.
World Population Day 2022 gives an opportunity to highlight the fact that the overpopulation issue, human rights violations, and gender inequality has become major issue in emerging nations.
The growth of the human population is happening at a very accelerated rate, despite the fatalities caused by COVID-19 which has added more pressure on the already overburdened healthcare structures. In addition, COVID-19 has further exposed healthcare fragilities, contributing to fewer resources to support family planning or prenatal support.
There are gaps in SRH services for adolescent women in Uganda. For example, an estimated 648,000 women aged 15–19 in Uganda are sexually active and do not want a child in the next two years of which more than 60% of these have an unmet need for modern contraception, meaning that they either use no contraceptive method or use a traditional method of contraception.
There is need for empowerment of young people to make informed sexual and reproductive health decisions in order to achieve their full potential meaning that greater investment is essential to ensure that young people have access to age-appropriate, comprehensive sexuality education, as well as high-quality sexual and reproductive health services.
World Population Day 2022 Significance
The purpose of celebrating world population day is to draw the attention of the public to the importance of population issues and the need to curb them. Family planning, poverty, sexual equality, civil rights, maternal health, and others are the topics to discuss on this occasion this year.