India with a current population of 1.34 billion\nis nearly bursting at the seams. In August 1947, when our nation threw off the\nshackles of colonialism, we were a nation of 34.5 crore people. The census,\ntaken a few years earlier, had put it at just 33 crore. It was mindboggling,\neven then, by international standards. The only nation which had the unenviable\ndistinction of having a population more than India was China. It still remains\nslightly ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In August 1999, the population of India\nofficially crossed the one billion mark, just in time for Independence Day on\nAugust 15, according to the United Nations demographers. The percentage of\npopulation increase was calculated at 1.19% and it was estimated to overtake\nChina, as the most populous nation in the world in four decades. China has been\ncomparatively more successful in its efforts to control population, pulling it\ndown to 0.47% per year, from its
\nearlier levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lack of political will, self-seeking\npoliticians and appeasement policy of the Government have made all our efforts\nto control the population explosion, come a cropper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the early part of the 20th century, our\npopulation was quite stable, not for any other reason but a high mortality\nrate. Indians had large families but the infant mortality rate as well as early\ndeath rate were high,
\nleading to a population growth considered negligible. Since the late 1940\u2019s the\nbirth rate has seen a definite negative trend but the mortality rate has also\nplummeted. The average fertility rate in\nIndia is 2.3 whereas, the ideal fertility rate should not be more than 2.1, the\nrate at which the population simply replaces itself without increasing. At\npresent estimates this level could be probably reached by 2026, considering the\nabsolute increase in numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reforms tried all over our nation have been\na total failure and the lack of political will is the main reason. The reforms\ndo not appear to be forthcoming at all and the policy of appeasement by\nself-seekers is more dominant. Since the studies show a huge but unmet demand\nfor contraceptives and the administration is totally moribund, some\nNon-Government Organisations have taken the lead and are sincerely trying to do\ntheir best. However they have limited reach and financial strength to make a\nsignificant dent in a huge population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In spite of all our advancements, our population\nproblem and a poor administration that ignores deaths caused due to starvation\ncontinue to give our nation a bad name. Can anyone imagine people selling off\ntheir children and dying due to starvation in a nation where the Food\nCorporation of India has stocks of food grains rotting away in millions of\ntonnes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we delve into other factors which are\nautomatically derived from our large population, we find that India has a large\nmajority of people living below extreme poverty level. It was the unenviable\nrecord of having more than 270 million people whose poverty level can be\nappraised by the fact that their earning capacity is less than what is\nnecessary to buy basic food for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All these factors do not necessarily need\nexcessive financing, to be eliminated. What they need is a proper policy and\nthe motivation to put the policy in a moving and dynamic format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The level of illiteracy, the dogma of religious\nbeliefs and the cravings of every family to have a male heir to continue their\ndynasty are the main factors which have resulted in this problem and need to be\nproperly tackled at different levels. Caste and communal politics have added to\nthe woes and a part of the electorate and the minority community has been\nmisguided and misinformed into believing that the efforts at birth control were\nactually directed at them. The result was that since the efforts made in this\ndirection in 1970s and the very idea of family planning have come as a total\nfailure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The economy of the nation and levels of poverty\nare both negative because of these reasons. A very important problem which\naffects economic development in any nation is the rapid growth of population.\nWith the falling level of death rates, this results in an imbalance between\npopulation size, resources and capital. The rate of growth of population has\nmore than doubled from 1981. To maintain a rapidly growing population, the\npercentage requirement of food, clothing, shelter, medicine, schooling etc. all\nrise. Moreover, rising population imposes greater economic burden and the per\ncapita availability of land and other resources fixed in supply decline. So, if\nit is not brought under control then a time will come when there will be poverty\nand unemployment everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In terms of population size, India comes second\nin position next only to China and supports about one-fifth of world\npopulation. The density of Indian population however is much higher on account\nof its smaller area and the position with regard to Indian population has\nassumed serious or more aptly alarming proportion in the last few decades. It\nis obvious that there is no fixed optimum population figure for all times to\ncome. The measure is an ever changing one in an economy which has a rate of net\nsavings and in which levels of land, fertility, mineral resources and\nproduction technologies keep changing. Factors like education and training of\nlabour force, the norms relating to working hours per day and working days per\nyear, the seasonality of economic activities, health and nutrition standard\nalso contribute their share in determining the size of optimum population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An overpopulated, underdeveloped nation faced\nwith scarcity of land and capital, suffers from the problem of providing\neducation, medical treatment, employment etc. Unemployment is a social evil\nwhich leads to a wastage of human resources that could have been put to\nproducing use. The potentials of development have not been properly exploited\nhence the bulk of population lives in misery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the United Nations Development Program\n(UNDP) countries are ranked on the basis of human development index (HDI). It\nis very shocking and distressing to note that India has been ranked 131st out\nof 188 countries in the recent HDI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In actual practice it is difficult to estimate\nthe size of optimum population of a nation. An overpopulated nation like India\nis characterised by high population density, widespread poverty, unemployment\nand a low per capita income. An underpopulated nation on the other hand will\nhave a perpetual shortage of labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other causes of overpopulation are the factors\naccounting for lowering of death rates. The invention of low cost and effective\ndrugs has resulted in the reduction of\nillness and death rate. It means that people live longer and add to existing\npopulation. Spread of knowledge about the nutritional requirements of our body\nand better availability of food and medicines have helped people in fighting\ndiseases. With the improvement in medical facilities, the percentage of infant\nmortality and delivery deaths has considerably reduced. Together with this,\nlack of education and the craving for a male heir result in more children\ninconsiderate of the effects they have on the health of the mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To control the population growth, India can\nadopt the one child per family norm as implemented in China. Families having\nmore children can be penalised in some manner which are exemplary by levying\nsome tax or taking away the opportunities of government service, of benefits\nwhich are guaranteed by our Constitution. These sound like harsh measures but\ncan help control the population of our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such drastic measures are called for now. Let us\nnot be foolish enough to consider this runaway horrendous problem anything less\nthan an \u2018Emergency\u2019. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India with a current population of 1.34 billion is nearly bursting at the seams. In August 1947, when our nation threw off the shackles of colonialism, we were a nation of 34.5 crore people. The census, taken a few years earlier, had put it at just 33 crore. It was mindboggling, even then, by international […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":405,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions\/405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}