Kigali: Lawmakers do not believe the spiraling population can be controlled by imposing the number of children a couple can have, a stakeholders workshop heard, disputing a measure that family planning campaigners have been putting forward.  

Legislating the number of kids could instead create more problems, according to Lower Chamber Deputy Speaker, Dr. Ntawukuriryayo Jean Damascene. “The issue is supposing a person has more than two, what do you do with them because they have a family to look after?”    

Available estimates suggest that the country’s population is expanding at alarming levels indicating that at current fertility rates of about 6 children per couple, Rwanda's population of 10million could double by 2030.  

The situation is also compounded by poverty levels now at 52 percent of the population – with actually most of them living in rural areas.

Government wants to reduce the birthrate by half, limiting families to three children, but controversy still remains as to how that can be done. A major campaign was launched last year to sensitise couples on family planning and several programmes including vasectomy have been introduced.  

But studies have showed that only about 27 percent are using the readily accessible birth control methods.

At some point information circulating was that the rural women were having children with the objective to fill up all the 12 spaces reserved for dependants in the previous national ID.

Members of the Rwandan Parliamentarians for the Population's Development (RPRPD) - a social welfare advocacy group of lawmakers say for the country to attain its ambitious development agenda, family numbers have to drop to at least two children.

Dr. Ntawukuriryayo – who chairs the group, told the two-day workshop that the starting pointing should be changing the population’s perceptions other than legislation.

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