In decades past, a family with nine or 12 children never managed to raise eyebrows. It was fairly common to have a “Brady Bunch” household. Yet, children were able to finish college courses and some became leaders in their fields, with parents looking at education as a serious responsibility and as their lasting legacy to their brood.
But things were different then. Life was simple. Cost of living was not as atrociously high as it is now. The quality of education in public schools could compete with that in the best private institution.
Our way of life was more attuned to nature. Instead of gadgets and solitary games that the present generation can not seemingly live without, our brand of play involved inter-acting with kids and with nature as the willing playground. Children waddled in pristine rivers, which our youth can not now imagine, as what they see are polluted or dried up river beds and crowded shanties in the background.
Boys and girls in my time relished climbing trees and in harvesting fruits in backyards and in hillsides. We drank straight from the faucet, with no qualms about contaminated water.
The environment that we had is best described in two words: healthful and safe. We did not hear about vanishing species and threatened habitats and life support systems until the rapacious plunder of our natural resources destroyed and left a forest cover of a measly 6 percent and seas on the verge of collapse.
It was a dream world that we had the privilege to grow up in. Our choice of a lifestyle was in harmony with the laws of nature. Nature gifted us with predictable consequence: dry and wet seasons and disasters that were few and far between. Life was breathtakingly uncomplicated.
Looking at the storm and water surges, heavy precipitation and heavy flooding that engulfed the entire country the past week brought by typhoon Gener, and the worst drought that United States is presently experiencing on the other side of the world, the prediction scientists made four decades ago of more intense and frequent storms and weather extremes is becoming a dreadful reality.
With a heavy heart, parents have to admit that the future that our children and their children will confront is definitely more challenging than the present. They will have to be trained to be resilient and cope with more and severe calamities. As we know fully well, disasters never fail to claim children and mothers as the most vulnerable victims.
It was so sad to listen to the story of a mother who lost three of five children in an instant when Typhoon Sendong hit Cagayan de Oro last December. Only when one of her remaining kids blurted “How I wish I died with my sisters, since I cannot talk with you anymore,” did she find the energy to be awakened from her long and understandable depression and accept the tragedy.
How long can we manage to deny that environment, quality of life and population are closely intertwined? There is a very strong correlation between extinction of almost 60,000 species and a global population of seven billion, which intensified in the ‘80s up to the present.
When crop and fish yields fail, because of the weather and degraded ecosystems, expect food security and rising poverty in a rapidly growing populace to become national and global security issues.
The Philippines has one of the highest birth rates in Asia, aside from having the highest in teen pregnancy and the highest maternal mortality rate.
According to Sen. Pia Cayetano, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography and sponsor of Senate Bill No. 2865, the upper chamber’s version of the Reproductive Health bill, “disparity in the use of contraceptives is more pronounced for married women with little or no education, compared to those with higher levels of education.”
The latest Family Health Survey showed a “prevalence in the use of modern contraceptives is much lower among women with no education at only 13.4 percent, compared to those who finished elementary (32.2 percent), high school (38.5 percent) and college (37.1 percent).” Adds Senator Cayetano, “What these figures prove is that clearly, there’s a very huge unmet need for reproductive health services for women in general, but more so, for those who come from the poorest families and those who are less educated.”
“There clearly is an urgent material need for an RH Law, but its hard-line critics refuse to see the reality. They refuse to lift a finger to help alleviate the condition of Filipino mothers despite the alarming rise in maternal deaths. It’s high time we end this vicious cycle where mothers are callously denied access to reproductive health services, which is their right and need. It’s high time to pass the RH Bill.”
“…let’s prioritize the plight and burden of Filipino mothers. They are the ones who risk their life to bear new life, carry the primary burden of ensuring the health, education and welfare of their children, and balance the family’s meager resources to survive from day-to-day,” said Pia.
It is high time for the government and the people to take concrete and urgent actions to have more responsible and informed parents and citizens who firmly believe they have choices, including the right to limit the number and due spacing of their children.
Having been an executive director of a woman’s organization, I met many mothers from low-income group who did not want more babies but thought that was their role, never mind if they could hardly fend for themselves. “The findings of the 2011 Family Health Survey (FH) confirm the widely accepted fact that women who have less income and less education are also the least likely to practice modern family planning methods.” (https://senatorpiacayetano.com/?p=1124)
The State, in its role and responsibility as parens patriae, has to step in and provide the policy framework and the environment by which more women and men will be roused to be more informed and mindful of their serious responsibilities as parents and guardians.
World Population Day was celebrated last month to envision “a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.”
Hopefully, in next year’s festivity, we will already be a step closer to that vision through the passage of the RH Bill.