Health Minister Zahid Maleque has said the government is taking multiple measures to rein in population growth in Bangladesh as the country is already facing negative impact of overpopulation.

"At present, there is 16.5 crore population in the country... in 1974, the number of total population was only 7.15 crore meaning population growth has increased more than double in less than 50 years," he told a discussion at the Directorate of Family Planning here on Thursday, an official release said.

The discussion was held marking the World population day.

The health minister said nearly 20 lakh people entered job market every year, which is massive challenge for Bangladesh. Taking this into consideration, the government has taken various initiatives to create skilled manpower for removing employment problem in the country. .

He said Bangladesh has become a role model for controlling coronavirus as the country successfully handled three waves of the deadly virus.

"When almost the entire world was struggling to combat the lethal virus... we have taken multiple measures under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to protect lives of the people from the disease," he added.

The health minister said Bangladesh secured fifth position in the world for its success in combating highly contagious virus while the country attained top position among the South Asian countries.

 Maleque said, "Bangladesh has so far inoculated nearly 29 crore doses of vaccines."

He attributed the controlling of third wave of COVID-19 that hit Bangladesh mid-January this year, to expansion of vaccination coverage including booster dose.

The world's population is expected to reach eight billion on November 15, this year, according to a report of the United Nations released recently.