Investigating the Approach of Upstream Regulations and Documents to the Qualitative Dimensions of Population Increase

Abstract

Population policy-making in Iran has undergone fundamental changes in recent years, and currently, regulations aimed to encourage population growth are on the agenda of the parliament and the government. Considering that the main concern of the population control and reduction approach in all societies, including Iran -even at the family level- has been about the qualitative dimension of the population; therefore, it is expected that special attention has been paid to improving the qualitative dimension of the population in micro and macro level policies and legislations. In this study, the contents of upstream documents are analyzed and their attention to the qualitative dimension of population is examined. The aim is to evaluate the current and desirable status of the qualitative dimension of population growth in upstream documents and emerging regulations with the purpose of population growth. The results indicate that there are fundamental gaps and lack of reflection of qualitative aspects between the upstream documents and new rules (such as providing physical, mental, sexual and spiritual parenting education; providing psychological and skill-based counselling and honoring large families). In conclusion, this study addresses the requirements of qualitative population growth and the need to integrate them into the laws and regulations related to population growth.