Health
The Second Malaysia Plan continued past initiatives in raising nutritional levels through a number of programs. These included incentives to grow nutritious food, instruction in nutrition and menu planning, and provision of food for groups with the highest rates of malnutrition. However, these programs were hindered by a lack of trained medical personnel.
Although family planning was established as a national goal in 1964, efforts during the Second Malaysia Plan to promote it were hampered by government neglect. Much of the success achieved by the National Family Planning Board occurred during the years of the First Malaysia Plan (1966–1970). The Second Malaysia Plan hoped to add 600,000 new users of family planning techniques, but the facilities and personnel provided were inadequate. The topic was viewed as rather sensitive by the government, and thus family planning was mostly ignored. Ironically, in 1984 Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad effectively eliminated family planning as a government policy by announcing the National Population Policy, which targeted a 70 million population by 2100—up from 12.6 million in 1984.
Read more about this topic: Second Malaysia Plan
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