Asia-Pacific Population Journal - Volume 18, Issue 2, 2003

The United Nations Seminar on Population in Asia and the Far East, held at Bandung, Indonesia, in 1955, focused attention on increasing population trends within the region covered by the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE). The Seminar realized that the current rising population growth rates largely negated or probably even retarded the effects of national socio-economicprogrammes that provided an environment conducive to lowering birth rates. Interest in the region’s population gains was further stimulated by the establishment of the Demographic Training and Research Centre at Bombay, India, jointly operated by the United Nations and the Government of India. At the Centre’s inaugural conference it was suggested that the United Nations convene a regional conference on population. That proposal was taken up by the Commission in its resolution 28 (XV) of 13 March 1959 requesting the secretariat to organize an Asian population conference where experts could examine the major problems of planning for economic and social development arising from current and prospective trends in population growth, composition and geographic distribution. Consequently, in 1963, the First Asian Population Conference (APC) was held at New Delhi, with the Government of India providing host facilities. APC was established as a statutory organ of the Commission to be convened every 10 years to consider all aspects of population questions and, of their impact on economic and social development as mandated in Commission resolution 74 (XXIII) of 17 April 1967.

The Fifth Asian and Pacific Population Conference, held at Bangkok in December 2002, followed a little more than 10 years after the Fourth Asian and Pacific Population Conference, held at Bali. The Bali Conference was one of the regional conferences leading up to the path-breaking International Conference on Population and Development, held at Cairo in 1994, and was important in the context of providing input into the Cairo Conference, but also in its own right as reflecting the consensus among the Member States making up over 60 per cent of the world’s population.

Early and universal marriage has traditionally been the norm in Nepalese culture, although the practise of delayed marriage appears to be on the increase. In 1961, nearly 75 per cent of young women aged 15 to 19 years were married; this figure declined to just under 50 per cent by 1991 and to a low of 40 per cent in 2001 (Mehta 1998; Khanal 1999; NDHS 1996 and 2001). This, along with the advent of reducing age at first menarche due to improved nutritional status, has led to an increase in the window of opportunity for premarital sexual activity to occur.

Despite occasional efforts to reverse the consensus articulated in the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), for almost a decade the recommendations contained in this Programme of Action have provided the guiding framework for expanding and reorienting reproductive health programmes in the Asian and Pacific region. Reproductive health in the above-mentioned Programme is defined as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes” (para. 7.2). Reproductive health services are viewed as a basic right through which women and men can express their reproductive choices.