As a nation, our challenges evolve and newer frontiers beckon. Of those, the population explosion and its underlying aggravation are what we must turn our attention to. Forget the total population numbers; we would probably be four hundred million by 2050, according to our government's own estimates. That is the worry, but that is not the only worry. The age bands and the population distribution within those bands are the most disturbing.

For example, based on today's numbers, 80 per cent of our population is under forty years of age; almost 70 per cent is under thirty. Between twenty and forty is the age to work, needing jobs, regardless of what strata one is from. That makes a neat 100 million in need of work. And although the government tells us that the unemployment rate is only 7.1 per cent, worse than the six or so per cent that we have generally kept in our annual estimates, these remain approximations.

There is little data to support either contention. We work on estimates only. Forty per cent of the labour force is in Agriculture — an estimate. But thank God, it is better than the sixty per cent that we learnt in the schools many decades ago. Without solid data, there is little planning that will either work or a strategy that can be dependable. At the rate that the population increases, around four million are added each year to the workforce needing jobs. At a six per cent growth rate in the economy, we could cater to at best around half of that number — we are currently growing at 2.5-3 per cent only, and even these figures remain speculative; we are so desolately weak at reliable stats. There are thus another couple of million looking to earn a living and support their families.

What is our magic potion to........

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