World Population Day observed

VISAKHAPATNAM: The district medical and health department will be focusing on creating awareness about family planning, mother and child health, vaccination of the child in the first five years of birth, sex education among teenagers, evils of gender discrimination and early marriages and hygiene and sanitation, the department said on the occasion of World population Day that was observed on Saturday.
A rally was also organised by the medical and health department in the morning from GVMC Gandhi statue to Ambedkar Hall to mark the day. At Andhra Medical College, a seminar was organised by the department of community medicine. Andhra University’s Population Research Centre, in collaboration with the varsity’s department of economics and Lions Club, VSP-Dwarakanagar, observed World Population Day with a function at the seminar hall of the economics department on Saturday. The AU vice-chancellor Prof GSN Raju was the chief guest while Prof M Sundara Rao, principal, AU College of Arts and Commerce, presided over the function.
Delivering the keynote address, the vice-chancellor said it was time to contemplate on making best use of the country’s human resource wealth. By and large, World Population Day is conducted to create awareness on avoiding early marriage, encouraging small families, providing proper education to all, promoting and supporting healthy life.
Prof R Ramakrishna, director, Population Research Centre, AU, dwelled on the growth trends in population. “Estimates show that the population of Vizag district is about 44.91 lakh and that of the city is 18.85 lakh in 2015. The most populous district as per the 2011 Census is East Godavari followed by Guntur in AP. Highest decadal growth rate has been recorded in Kurnool (14.65%) followed by Anantapur (12.16%) and Visakhapatnam (11.89%). The lowest population density is found in Kadapa (188/sqkm) and highest in Krishna (519/sqkm),” he said.