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v. It motivates people to utilize available health services in the local level.
vi. It encourages people to participate in the solution of existing health problems in their
locality.
vii. It provides scientific knowledge on various health matters.
viii. It brings change in attitudes and behaviours of people towards healthy behaviours.

ix. It helps to modify superstitious and traditional beliefs on various health matters.

1.3 Introduction to Population and Population Education

a. Introduction to population

Human beings are social animals that live in a society. There is birth of a child in a family.
Once a person is born, death is sure. People migrate from one place to another to seek
good opportunities. People never remain in the same place. Birth, death and migration
cause change of population.
Population is a group of individuals living in a particular place at a particular time.

b. Introduction to population education
Rapid increase of population is burning issue and it has created a great problem in the
overall development of a nation. With the increase of population, there is increase in demand
of food, shelter, clothes, health services, education, transportation, communication,
employment and entertainment facilities. Even there is random increase of deforestation,
unmanaged urbanization, industrialization, scarcity of underground water, increase of
pollution, global warming, desertification, occurrence of natural calamities etc. There
is serious impact on social, economic and environmental sectors with the increase of
population. Hence, it is most essential to provide population education to students.
Population education imparts necessary information and knowledge on all those above
mentioned problems. It plays a crucial role in generating awareness for the solution of the
problems of population in a reasonable way.
Population education has been defined by many educators in different ways. The first
regional workshop on population and family life education organized by regional office
of UNESCO, Bangkok in 1970 A.D. has defined population education as, “An educational
programme which helps in developing awareness and understanding of population
situations as well as a rationale attitude and behaviours towards those situations for the
attainment of quality of life of the individual, the family, the community, the nation and
the world.”
Population education can also be defined as an educational process by which individuals
gain knowledge, skills and understanding on population and population matters so that
they can bring change in their attitudes and behaviours towards population matters.
Population education is a multi-dimensional subject. It gives knowledge and
understanding about many subjects. It provides knowledge on sex education in which
GREEN Environment Population and Health Education Book-9 9