Wisdom in PM’s advice

But, as Donna da Costa, the executive director of the Family Planning Association of Trinidad and Tobago (FPATT), pointed out, "We always have to remember that we cannot control the sex life of individuals no matter what their social and economic status in society. But we have a responsibility to ensure they have access to proper sexual and reproductive health care and information to make responsible choices."

Years of research have shown what works and what doesn’t when it comes to family planning. But this does not mean that instituting effective measures is easy. Mr Manning’s advice highlighted a central contradiction of human nature, because those persons who can afford large families usually have few children, whereas lower-income persons tend to have many offspring.

This may seem senseless, but in fact it may be a quite rational strategy. Although there is no conscious calculation of odds, people generally have an instinctive sense of the chances of their offspring surviving to adulthood. So middle-class families have a better chance of seeing all their children grow up and have children of their own. Thus, two or three children is considered adequate.

Working-class persons, however, are more insecure about their own mortality and that of their children.

This is why they have their children younger and have more of them than better-off families.

In order to control population growth in the long run, therefore, it is necessary to increase the security of the less prosperous classes in a society, and the best way to accomplish this is by having an efficient health sector, a low crime rate, and a good education system.

Needless to say, the country is deficient in all these areas. Hence we have a crude birth rate of 14 per 1,000 persons — a rate which can easily absorb our economic growth till 2020. More significantly, one-sixth of all births are to mothers between the ages of 15 to 19, while one-third are to mothers in the 20-24 age group.

This is why educating women is a crucial factor in managing population growth. The more education a woman has, the more likely she is to delay her first pregnancy and the more likely she is to use contraception. In this regard, the academic performance of girls bodes well in respect to reducing teenage pregnancy rates.

However, a comprehensive sex education programme must also be part of both girls’ and boys’ learning. Additionally, the State must also ensure that the Health and Social Services Ministries, as well as the FPATT, have the necessary support, both political and financial, to educate all women in their fertile years about family planning. Without this, as the Prime Minister hinted, breaking the cycle of poverty will be a far greater challenge for our society.