Bangladesh is going to introduce a voluntary "one couple, one child" population planning policy by 2015 to curb its growing population.

The Director General of the Directorate of Family Planning Mohammad Abdul Qayyum told the Chinese news agency Xinhua that: "The Chinese policy influenced us in framing our policy though we are not making it mandatory." He said that the government plans to promote a "No more than two children, one is best".

"We are eager to develop relationship with Chinese population planning authorities for training our men, using modern contraceptive and other related matters," Qayyum said.

According to the government’s draft policy, one-child families will have preference in state schools and will be eligible for financial grants.

With a population of about 150 million and a birth rate of about 2.7 children per woman, Bangladesh is said to be the most densely populated country in the world. According to Mr Qayyum, "Overpopulation is a burden for the country. If we fail to achieve our target to reduce the present birth rate, it will soon be difficult to meet the basic demands of people. We may even fail to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by its targeted period of 2015."

News accounts of this initiative are sketchy, but administering it will be cumbersome: 21 ministries will be involved; religious leaders will have to be persuaded to promote the policy. It is unclear how the rights of the girl-child will be respected. According to an interview with Mr Qayyam in The Daily Star newspaper, "The policy will also encourage every fertile woman to give birth to only one girl child during her total reproduction age." ~ Xinhua, Dec 23; Daily Star, Dec 14;