The Journal of Social Studies/30.
Such fears were voiced in the statement made by Hon. Jarold A. Kiefther, Assistant Administration for Population and Humanitarian Assistant in the US Congress.4 It was maintained that for the period 1970-1980,1) the population of non-communist countries will increase by about 30% and 2) five countries : India,Pakistan,Bangladesh,Brazil and Indonesis, account for half of this increase. The reasoning implicated here is simple. As these areas show sings of increasing landless-ness, a low per capita GNP, low literacy rate etc. in short conditions which may lead to unrest among the masses stability of such areas must be maintained at all cost, so that they do not fall into the 'wrong hands.' One of the ways by which to ensure this would be to pump foreign assistance into population planning programs in such areas. Thus it is little wonder that a large part of the bilateral and multilateral assistance received by Bangladesh is channelised into the population sector. This has led to a proliferation of institutional and infrastructural build-ups which included the constitution of a separated division of population control and family planning under the Ministry of Health and Population Control as well Directorate of Family Planning. Promotional activities have also been stepped up. The question for us to ask is how is all this affecting women. Although theoretically, family planning should have affected both men and women, in practice it has usually been women at which the propaganda seems to be targeted at. .
The reasons for this are to be found in the general status of women within the existing oppressive structure of society. With a lower literacy rate and a lower rate of participation in the labour force (i.e. excluding house work as labour).compared to men, existing social practices and values within the Bangladesh state operate to relegate women into a predominantly reproductive role.