Bangladesh may experience a massive population explosion in near future if the country's total fertility rate cannot be reduced immediately, speakers told a roundtable yesterday.

The current fertility rate of the country is 2.3, which has to be reduced to 2.0 within 2021, they said, otherwise an explosion would be inevitable.

The fertility rate is the average number of children a woman would bear during her lifetime.

Addressing the discussion, Abu Sayed Mohammad Hasan, a technical officer of UNFPA, said if the current fertility rate sustained, the country's population would rise to 223.5 million in 2041, but if the rate was brought down to 2.0, it would be 206.5 million.

Voicing concerns over the issue, the speakers emphasised that the government strengthen its family planning programmes through taking several new initiatives and reactivating some previous ones to reduce the rate.

The discussion was jointly organised by Bangla daily Prothom Alo and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) at the newspaper's office in the capital.

Speaking as chief guest, Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammed Nasim said the country's development would face a setback if the population growth could not be controlled.

The government is working on some unachieved targets in the health sector, like increasing the number of child deliveries at health facilities, he said, adding that the ministry would consider the recommendations made at the programme.

However, Director General of the Directorate General of Family Planning Dr Kazi Mustafa Sarwar denied that the family planning programmes were being less active.

He said, “Our works are not visible, but these are going on. We are providing family planning services to people through community and satellite clinics.”

Hossain Zillur Rahman, former caretaker government adviser, said that to reduce the fertility rate within the time, the government should focus on family planning programmes.

Fazilatunnesa Bappi, a member of the parliament, urged men to play an important role in family planning as, what she said, they had the power of decision making in families.

Abdul Quayum, associate editor of Prothom Alo; Aminul Haque, professor of Dhaka University, and Taslim Uddin Khan, director general of Social Marketing Company, also spoke among others.