Population Problem In India
Population explosion is one of the biggest problems In
India. India is currently facing a population explosion, which has affected all
our development and environment very badly. The consistent high birth-rate and a considerable decline in the mortality rate have made India an overpopulated
country. The problem is becoming more and more serious with the passage of
time. In terms of population, India is the second-largest country after china but
many reports are saying that India will beat China in population and become the
most populous country by 2022, while some of predicting by 2025. Due to infant mortality rate has decreased
from 80 to 126 per thousand. While on the other hand, Life-expectancy has
considerably increased. This phenomenon has resulted in the rapid growth of the
population of younger people. Similarly, there is an increasing number of men
and women over sixty years of age. Consequently, the clash of ideas and
interests between the young and the old has become common.
There are around 17 to 18 million births every year in
India. Due to this high fertility and low mortality rate population of our
country has reached 1.25 billion mark. The problem has been discussed many
times but not any serious steps towards population control have not been taken
yet. The steps taken till now, to address this enormous problem, are not
really impactful. Some impacting population control programmes should take into
the account such as socio-economic factors of the age of marriage, female literacy,
rate of morality, the status of women in society and poverty because they have a
huge effect on our population explosion. The growth rate of our population has
really become a matter to think about it. If this baby-boom will continue, our
country will soon be facing many big problems. This population-boom reduces the
quality and standard of living and increases the many serious problems of
unemployment, housing, health, family-welfare education and pollution etc. This
problem has become worse and worse because of illiteracy, ignorance, superstitions,
religious and communal prejudices. Most of the people and slums in the cities
are totally ignorant of the bad consequences of a large and unplanned family. Owing
to the lack of proper awareness and age-old traditions, coupled with superstitions,
people in villages, believe in the divine dispensation in the moulding of their
families and refuse to plan them. Small farmers and agricultural labourers,
etc. Have large and unplanned families because of the economic value of the
children. They believe that the more the children, the more hands there are
to earn for the family.
To achieve the desired aims and objectives in regard
to population control and family planning, the status of women in society
should be improved. They should be well educated and informed and economically
independent so that they can have control over their fertility. It is a fact
that female literacy has a strong correlation with higher age of marriage and a lower birth rate. If marriage mean age of women would be raised to 20 then it
is assumed that the birth rate can be decreased. Late marriages should be
encouraged and child marriages should be dealt with strictly. Marriage registration
should be made compulsory and no marriage should be considered legal without
it. Two children kinds of rules should be strictly implemented and there should
not be any violation of it. Unless the population is controlled, neither can
poverty be removed nor the living standard be improved. Under union budgets and
five-year govt. plans, more funds should be allocated for family planning,
mother and child care and birth control programmes. More and more sterilisation
facilities, coupled with increased monetary incentives, should be provided in
villages and towns. Couples accepting family planning with one or two daughters
should be provided proper insurance cover, ensuring their welfare in old age.
Security and protection in old age should be ensured to such couples by the government
and society. A strong system of incentives and disincentives should be
adopted to check this explosion in our population.
Poverty and ignorance are at once both the cause and
effect of the rapid increase of population. Along with rapid and proper economic
development, there should be proper awareness among the people about the
desirability of family planning. A mass propaganda and education programme
should be launched through the press, T.V. and radio, etc to enlighten the
masses regarding the many advantages of family planning, birth-control and late
marriages. If the present population-boom does not stop in the future, it will
be a disaster for the country. It is better that people use more and more means
of sterilisation, loops, condoms and oral contraceptives, etc, to check the
menace of rapid growth in the population before it is too late. We can learn from
countries like China and Sri Lanka etc. More emphasis should be laid on employment,
women’s education, poverty alleviation and birth-control schemes. It is through
these means alone that the concept of a small family can be popularised. Poverty
arising out of unemployment and under-employment is the major cause of large
families. Family planning and economic development have a strong positive
association. One cannot be achieved without the other. They are interlinked and
inter-dependent. The experience of the developed countries in this connection
is before us. In poor families, an additional child is considered economically
desirable, he or she can help in increasing the income of a family to some
extent.
The moot question is why India has so far failed in
its population control programme and family welfare schemes. The policy-makers,
leaders, demographers, and health and family experts should come together and
seriously ponder over the matter. We should review our population control
programme so as to give it new direction and dimension with the active
involvement of the various governmental, private and corporate agencies. Even
small countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have managed to reduce the total fertility
rate faster than India. Every year the increase of a huge number in our
population, which is equivalent to the total population of some of the
countries like Australia and other European countries. Family planning and
welfare programmes need to be turned into a people’s movement. It is an established
fact that this explosion in our population is the root cause of poverty, social
tensions, urban squalor, crime, environment degradation and fast increasing
unemployment.