From Geoffrey Buta, Tamale.Ghana.                                                                                     Photo: Geoffrey Buta

Parents in the Northern Region have been advised to undergo family planning to reduce the increase of child birth which has attributed to the poverty situation in the Region.

According to the National Population Council, the Northern Region has the largest population of 46.3 per cent aged 0-14 against the National average of 41.4 percent.

The photograph portrays some women and young girls each with babies, some with two, one strap behind and holding one.

 Mr. Andani Alhassan, the deputy Northern Regional Birth and Death Registry said, the Northern Region birth rate is increasing rapidly comparing the year 2010 to the second quarter 2011 to the previous years.

Mr. Andani pointed out that 42,279 births were recorded in 2010 with the Month of MAY recording the highest due to child health promotion program organized by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with UNICEF.

He also said that, the prime reproductive years from their statistics are between the ages of 15 and 29, where 25 to 29 are high and the current population of children from January to July this year is almost 30,000 where the month of May recording the highest of 7,604 due to the child health promotion program.

He stressed on the difficulty the organization faces, which within five month last year registration of birth fell drastically due to shortage of resources, which affected the recording process of the department.

“High birth rate will increase our poverty situation here in the Region as well as the country, if necessary steps are not taken to halt it, he said.

The deputy registrar hinted that, more birth will be recorded to know the actual babies born annually when adequate materials are acquired.

He then called on Government and other organization to help provide Birth and Death registry with the necessary support to make their work prompt to improve the country’s recording keeping.

He also urged the health authorities to continue to promote family planning education which have been slow for some time now. The campaign should be focus seriously in the three Northern Region, in order to address the high birth rate.

Educating the citizens on increase birth rate and its effects onto the individual as well as the community will be the solution in fighting the high increase of poverty in the country, he stressed.

Mr. Andani lamented that, the rapid increase will worsen the poverty situation in the region when pragmatic plans are not put in place to ensure the birth rate of the people.     

“I believe when women are given good education on contraceptives, better employment, they will begin to take better choices to benefit the community and the country as a whole”, he said.