MYANMAR

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(3) the government's recognition on the intimate relationship between population,
environment and development.
50. The ultimate goal of the Population Policy is to contribute to an improvement of the
quality of life of the people through better health conditions, higher educational levels and
increased employment opportunities. The objectives and goals of population policy are set to
assure a rational balance between population, in qualitative and quantitative terms, and the
process of soclo-economic development towards improving the lives of people. The
objectives and goals of the proposcd Population Policy are:
1) To promote awareness among the citizens the population issues and the impact
of rapid population growth on development
2) To provide the necessary information and education about the benefits of a
reasonable family size
( 3) To improve the health status of the population especially women and children
by lowering morbidity and mortality rates
( 4) To create greater employment opportunities
( 5) To increase participation of women in the development process
( 6) To assure a more balanced regional development
( 7) To give greater access to quality birth-spacing services for all married couples
( 8) To reduce the incidence of unsafe illegal abortions and unwanted pregnancies
( 9) To strengthen the institutions for the collection and analysis of demographic
data and the utilization of these data for socio-econoniic developnient planning
(10) To regulate the process of urbanization and population distribution pattern to
support the comprehensive national development and to minimize regional
disparities.
51. Targets of Population Policy were based on the current wend of fertility, mortality,
morbidity and some social indicators. The targets of proposed Population Policy are:
(1) To set the aim of population policy at attaining replacement level of TER 2,1+
(2) To reduce the rate of infant mortality from the present rate of approximately 98
per 1000 live births to no more than 50 per 1000 live births by the year 2000+
(3) To provide quality, safe, effective and affordable birth spacing services in all
government health institutions.
(4) To reduce the under 5 mortality rate (U5MR) from the present 150 per 1000
live births to 70 by the year 2000.
(5) To reduce maternal mortality rate (MMR) from the present 123 per 100,000 live
births to 62 by the year 2000.