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INTRODUCTION

Since the birth of Pakistan on August 14, 1947 its population is constantly increasing, and this economically developing country has attained the sixth position amongst the most populous countries of the world now. Keeping in view the present growth rate of the country its population will double in 37 years. As per available statistics every year 2,876137 souls are added to the already teeming millions (NIPS, 2004). If this trend of natural increase in population continues Pakistan will become the fourth most populous country of the world by the year 2025(PRB, 2002, 2003, and 2004). In 1951 population of the country was 33.7 million, which has increased to 85.1 million by 1981 and further to about 149 million by 2003. In other words it has quadrupled in 52 years (GoP, 2002-03, p 178).

Over population is a big obstacle to economic development, especially of the developing countries ( Pakistan is no exception). There are many reasons of over population like high birth rate, decline in death rate, improved medical facilities, illiteracy, conservative philosophy, joint family system, etc. Almost all of these factors can reasonably be considered at the root of the continuous population increase in Pakistan . Rapid population growth especially that of economically poor and developing countries, lowers per capita income, increases pressure on land and results in high land mass ratio, increases the size of younger age group with the result that dependency ratio increases, reduces the productivity of labour due to under-nourishment, increases unproductive expenditure and the volume of savings declines, acts as a barrier to capital formation and capital deficiency regards productivity growth, creates unemployment/underemployment and ultimately leads to wastage of human resources and poverty(AIOU,2001).

POVERTY INCIDENCE IN PAKISTAN

Almost one-third of its population is living their lives below the poverty line (Economic Survey, 2003-04). They are meagerly fed, scantly clad, and devoid of basic healthcare and educational facilities. Poverty is a curse. It has so many dreadful faces. It means malnutrition, illiteracy, and homelessness, lack of healthcare, joblessness, exploitation, social exclusion, and so on. The Planning Division has adopted an official poverty line based on a caloric norm of 2350 calories per adult equivalent per day. The poverty line approximates to Rs 748.56 per month per adult equivalence in 2000-01(Economic Survey, 2003-04). Indeed life below poverty line is very difficult but lives of those whose economic position place them just above this unhealthy line are also full of enormous ordeals. The poverty incidence varies across provinces as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) has the highest rural poverty of 44.3 per cent as well as urban poverty 31.2 per cent. The debate on official poverty line related methodology is still going on and many people alleging the government for fudging the actual numbers in this connection (Daily The Nation,2-1-04). The per capita income in Pakistan in 2001 was Rs. 24200/ and 30 per cent of the population was unable to meet basic food requirement 2150 calories per day ( Ten Year Perspective Plan 2001-11, p25).

In Pakistan there are so many reasons for poverty incidence. These may be unemployment, inaccessibility of capital, high incidence of health problems, weak service delivery, etc. However, the root cause of poverty as well as most of the potential reasons for poverty in Pakistan is the high population growth. The success of crusade against poverty is possible if the country gets control over its ever-increasing population growth. The two are interrelated. The impact of population growth on poverty is obvious, since poorer families, especially women and marginalized groups bear the burden of large number of children with relatively fewer resources, further adding to the spiral of poverty. The income poverty, which is deemed as the root of other kinds of poverty, adds to malnutrition and lower health and educational facilities.

LITERACY RATE

Literacy rate in Pakistan is also not very encouraging. Although there is a gradual increase in this rate for the past so many years but it is still not up to the mark. With this rate or even a bit better than the existing one Pakistan 's dream to get out of the net of poverty seems very distant of materialization. In fact every government of the country has tried to make progress in increasing the literacy rate, both male and female, but the growing population all the times nullifies these efforts. According to the population census of 1998 the adult literacy rate has increased from 26.2 per cent in 1981 to 45.0 percent in 1998. The following table shows the gradual increase in literacy rate in the country since 1981 to 2003.

Population growth and literacy rates (1981-2003)

E: estimated

Source: Population Census Organization & Ministry of Planning & Development division

Literacy gender parity index indicates that in all provinces/areas of the country, proportionately fewer women than men have basic literacy skills. The above table indicates that almost 50 per cent of the total population of the country is illiterate.

HEALTH FACILITIES

Infant mortality in Pakistan is above the average in Asia . About 50 mothers die each day from pregnancy and child birth, 300 children die of diarrhea every day, four-tenths of the population has no access to safe drinking water, one quarter of the population does not have access to health facilities (GoP, 2002). The gap between available and required health facilities is very large. At present, there are 108,062 registered doctors, 5530 dentists and 46331 nurses in the country which comes to a population doctor ratio of 1404 persons per doctor, 27414 persons per dentists, and the availability of one nurse for 3296 persons. There are about 906 hospitals, 4554 dispensaries, 5290 Basic Health Units, and 552 Rural Health Centres. The availability of hospital beds in all medical facilities has been estimated at 98684, which comes to a population bed ratio of 1536 persons per bed (Economic Survey, 2004).

In such an unfortunate scenario when half of the population of the country has zero literacy level, one-third inhabitants of the country are living their lives below poverty line and are lacking basic facilities of life such as food, health and education the demand from national mass media increases manifold for educating as well as motivating the masses regarding important issues of national and individual interest.

FAMILY PLANNING IN PAKISTAN

Family planning is one of those programmes, which are considered essential for social and economic development of a country. It is considered to be effective in enhancing the quality of life by reducing infant mortality, improving maternal health, and alleviating pressures on government to meet social and economic needs. The growing population of the world in general and Pakistan in particular needs to be brought under control. Keeping in view the scarce national resources and constant growth in population of the country increase its population growth rate and even slowing down the existing one has become essential than ever.

With the initiatives of private sector family planning programme was started in Pakistan in 1953 ( brain.net, 12-31-03 ). The government soon realized the gravity of the situation and adopted population policy in the First five-year Development Plan (1955-60) by introducing family planning on a limited scale through voluntary organizations. During the Second five-year Plan, family panning services were provided through the health infrastructure. The family planning has now become one of the most important features of all social and economic development plans of the country. Every year the targets are assessed, the net is further widened to more areas and population and further budgetary allocations are earmarked for this very important sector. The government now strives hard for stabilization of the population. The country has made some short steps in this direction. The population growth rate has declined from 3 per cent in previous decades to its current level of 2.1 per cent per annum ( Population Policy of Pakistan, 2002) and making efforts to further decrease this rate to 1.3 by the year 2020. The average family size, which was 6.5 children per family in 1980s, has declined to 4.5 children at present and is expected to decline at 2.1 to 2.6 children per family by 2023 ( UNIC, 2002).

COMMUNICATION COMPONENT OF POPULATION WELFARE PROGRAMME

Keeping in view the importance of effective communication for achieving the desired goals communication component was included the in the Sixth Five-year Plan, 1983-88 and it was approved for 48 months duration (1984-1988) with a budget of Rs. 150.1 million. However, it was initiated in April 1985 (NIPS, 1988).

The ultimate aim of the communication component was to increase awareness among the masses about the hazards of unbridled and unplanned population growth in the country and also to aware masses about the benefits of planning their individual families. For this purpose various media and channels of communication from interpersonal to mass media were employed.

Knowledge about the phenomenon especially among the married people and those who are about to start their marital life is very vital. There are numerous such social, political and religious beliefs in the Pakistani society especially among the Pukhtoons of NWFP, which do not favour family planning. So to overcome such attitudinal barriers very effective communication strategy is needed.

Some research studies conducted in the past (such as Ayaz 2003; Iqbal and Zaidi 1997; NIPS, 1996; 1988,) show that television and interpersonal communication channels had played significant role in providing knowledge on family planning. However, such studies were conducted in different areas with research populations different from the present one. Secondly, results of the family planning campaign and the various strategies used for getting the message across to the masses need continuous assessment, The present study is therefore, designed to investigate the impact of television and interpersonal communication channels out of the communication channels used for awareness campaign of the masses regarding family planning.

Various advertisements, dramas, talk shows, and other programmes aired from Pakistan television are being produced and sponsored for achieving this goal. Most of such programmes are aimed at knowledge of viewers on general and specific benefits of planning their families and convincing them for limiting their individual family according to their resources, spacing of children, better mother and children health, higher age at marriage, welfare of family, and so on. They are also identifying various family planning methods and their advantages. These messages are telecast in all regional languages as well as in the national language “Urdu”.

Besides mass media family planning communication is also making use of interpersonal communication channels in Pakistan since long. These channels due to immediate presence and understanding between the communicator and the receiver (s) are supposed to be more effective in bringing changes in knowledge, attitude, and/or behavior of the receiver (s). Interpersonal channels may vary from study to study. In the present study our focus in this area has been on family planning workers, spouse, friends, relatives, neighbours, and doctor. These interpersonal communication channels are suitable even for topics that are perceived as extremely personal and private.

AREA OF STUDY

District Peshawar of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) was the study area of this research project. It was selected as it hosts the largest city of the province, and is also surrounded by rural areas. Thus subjects bearing their urban/rural residence background could easily be selected. Peshawar , the capital of NWFP is also one of the main centers of both print and electronic media. Some of the national dailies are published from here while others have established their bureau offices in this provincial metropolitan. The only television station of the province runs from here. Peshawar also hosts the second oldest radio station of the country (AIOU, 1997). All these mass media organizations are serving media related social and psychological needs of the people of Peshawar and these multiple sources of mass communication keeping them abreast of different social and technological innovations. (The present study was conducted in 2004).

The rural population of the district is 1036 thousand constituting 51.31 percent of the total population. The average annual growth rate of rural population during 1981-98 is 3.81per cent, which was 0.28 per cent and 1.78 per cent during 1972-81 and 1961-72 respectively. The urban population is 983000 constituting 48.68 per cent of the total population of the district living in the Municipal Corporation, Peshawar , Cantonment Board, Peshawar and University Town Committee Peshawar. The rural population of the district is 51.3 per cent of the total population of the district (Census Report, 1998). The literacy ratio of the district among the population aged 10 years and above is 41.79 per cent. It has increased by 16.07 per cent since 1981 when it was only 25.72 per cent. The literacy ratio for male is 55.97 per cent compared to 25.85 per cent for female. Out of the total female population 45.21 per cent is in child bearing ages i.e., 15 to 49 years which is relatively higher as compared to 1981 when it was 43.16 per cent among the female in reproductive ages, 31.30 per cent are never married, 66.65 per cent are currently married, 1.96 per cent widowed and 0.08 per cent divorced. Three point ninety eight per cent of ever married women of child bearing age are found without any child, 33.97 per cent have 6 and more children, 45.75 per cent having 2 to 4 children and 6.72 per cent have reported 1 child and 9.58 percent have 5 children. If we compare rural and differences it is observed that proportion of ever married females are higher in rural areas having children 6 and above. In contrast the population of ever-married females having children 4 and 5 are higher in urban areas (Census Report, 1998).

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The present study is designed with the following main objectives:

•  To know the awareness levels regarding family planning.

•  To compare television with interpersonal communication channels in awareness of the masses regarding family planning.

•  To find out the role of these communication channels for people of differing demographic characteristics.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Universe of the study was married men and women. A sample of 300 comprising of 150 rural and 150 urban-based respondents was drawn through random systematic technique. One hundred and sixty-five people returned the questionnaire. The gathered data were analyzed through SPSS. Relationships between television, and interpersonal communication sources as independent variables, and knowledge of the respondents as dependent variable were analyzed on Zero Order “rs” with specification for sex, urban-rural residence, education, profession, and number of living children. The data were also tested for relationships between the variables after controlling the effects of cosmopoliteness of the respondents. The data gave us the following picture:

MAIN RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The study found that at zero order “rs” and with specification for sex, no difference between the impact of television and interpersonal channels was found on the awareness of the respondents. Both the independent variables had significant relationships with the dependent variable (.49** and.58** for TV and interpersonal channels respectively) at r ≤ .01. When specified for “sex” the relationship between TV exposure and awareness was significant for both males and females (Male .56**, Female .40**) at r ≤ .01. Similarly, when specified for “sex” the relationship between interpersonal exposure and awareness was significant for both males and females (Male .55**, Female .65**) at r ≤ .01.

With specification for urban-rural residence, television exposure and knowledge on family planning was found significant (Rural .37**Urban .55**) at r ≤ .01. Likewise, interpersonal channels and knowledge on family planning of respondents belonging from both urban and rural areas were also found strongly correlated (Rural .68**, Urban .53**) at r ≤ .01.

The study found that relationships at the zero order between television and the criterion variable, and with specification for profession were significant like that of the interpersonal communication channels and respondents knowledge on family planning under the same conditions (Zero order and specification). Both the sources were effective in informing people about family planning.

When the relationships of the two communication sources were specified for the number of living children, at was found that here again the two sources had almost the same effect (Nil .49*,1-2 .31*,3-4 .59**,5-6 .51**,Above .63* and Nil .65**,1-2 .37**,3-4 .58**,5-6 .81**,Above .73** for television and interpersonal channels respectively). Both the sources had significant relationships with the criterion variable, with the only difference of significance level for respondents with no children, 1-2 children, and more than six children. The relationships between the independent variables and the criterion variable were also found the same when they were specified for profession. Similarly, after controlling the effect of cosmopoliteness of the respondents the relationship between television and knowledge on family planning was found as .47** against.57** as the relationship of interpersonal channels and awareness of the respondents on family planning. Both sources were significantly correlated with the criterion variable at r ≤ .01.

The results show no difference between the impact of television and interpersonal communication channels on knowledge of the family planning of the respondents. These findings do not support Everett M. Rogers generalization regarding the effectiveness of mass media and interpersonal communication channels which he has made in his book Communication of Innovations that “Mass media are relatively more important at the knowledge function, and interpersonal channels are relatively more important at the persuasion function in the innovation-decision process.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

•  Bakht Rawan (PhD) is Assistant Professor, Department of Mass Communication, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad , Pakistan .

Email: byusafzai@yahoo.com

Ph. (land line): 0092-51-9057263

Cell Nr. 0092-3329842245

•  Fazal Rahim Khan (PhD) is Professor of Communication at the Department of Communication, IIUM, Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia .

Email: fazal_qasuria@yahoo.com

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