Population

In the second most populated country in the world with nearly 50th of the world population according to the United Nations in July 2016 the population stood at 1,326,801,576.

India is projected to the world's most populous country by 2022 surprassing China,its population reaching 1.7 billion by 2050 + India is expected to become the first political entry in history to be home to more than 1.5 billion people. it's population growth rate is 1.2 % ranking 94th in the world in 2013.. the Indian population increase the billion mark in 1998.

India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35, It is expected that in 2020 the average age of an Indian women 29 years compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan and by 2030,India is dependency ratio should be over 0.4.

India is more than 2018 a group and every major religion is represented as four major families of languages (indo-european, Dravedian, austrosiatic and Sino-Tibetan languages) as well as two language isolates (the nihali language spoken in parts of Maharashtra and the Burusakshi language spoken in parts of Jammu and Kashmir)

Further complexity is lent by the great variation that occur across this population on social parameter such as income and education Only the continent of Africa exceeds the linguistic genetic and cultural diversity of the national of India.

The sex ratio is 944 females for 1000 males (2016)

Causes of Over Population

The two main common causes leading to over population in India are:

The birth rate is still higher than the death rate. We have been successful in declining the death rates but the same cannot be said for birth rates.

The fertility rate due to the population policies and other measures has been falling but even then it is much higher compared to other countries.

Early Marriage and Universal Marriage System: Even though legally the marriageable age of a girl is 18 years, the concept of early marriage still prevails and getting married at an young age prolongs the child bearing age. Also, in India, marriage is a sacred obligation and a universal practice, where almost every woman is married at the reproductive age.

The above causes are interrelated to the various social issues in our country which are leading to over population.

Poverty and Illiteracy: Another factor for the rapid growth of population is poverty. Impoverished families have this notion that more the number of members in the family, more will be the numbers to earn income.

Some feel that more children are needed to look after them in their old age. Also hunger can be cause of death of their children and hence the need for more children. Strange but true, Indian still lag behind the use of contraceptives and birth control methods. Many of them are not willing to discuss or are totally unaware about them. Illiteracy is thus another cause of over population

Age old cultural norm: Sons are the bread earners of the families in India. This age old thought puts considerable pressure on the parents to produce children till a male child is born. More the better.

Illegal migration: Last but not the least, we cannot ignore the fact that illegal migration is continuously taking place from Bangladesh, Nepal leading to increased population density.

Effects of Over Population

Even after 67 years of independence, the scenario of our country is not good, due to over population. Some major impacts of high population are as follows: Unemployment: Generating employment for a huge population in a country like India is very difficult. The number of illiterate persons increases every year. Unemployment rate is thus showing an increasing trend. Manpower utilisation: The number of jobless people is on the rise in India due to economic depression and slow business development and expansion activities. Pressure on infrastructure: Development of infrastructural facilities is unfortunately not keeping pace with the growth of population. The result is lack of transportation, communication, housing, education, healthcare etc. There has been an increase in the number of slums, overcrowded houses, traffic congestion etc. Resource utilisation: Land areas, water resources, forests are over exploited. There is also scarcity of resources. Decreased production and increased costs: Food production and distribution have not been able to catch up with the increasing population and hence the costs of production have increased. Inflation is the major consequence of over population. Inequitable income distribution: In the face of an increasing population, there is an unequal distribution of income and inequalities within the country widen.

10 Effective ways to control population

1. Development

Why the enormous population and the increasing rate of it is the biggest challenge faced by the developing nations of Africa and Asia while the same is a little or no threat in countries like America, Europe or Japan. Lack of Development implies high poverty, high illiteracy, high discrimination, lack of awareness, lack of medical facilities and thus in turn increased population growth. Any economy is termed developed is its population is non-discriminated and just. By reducing discrimination between gender and class and ensuring development of the whole population instead of a given segment of society would eliminate the challenge of population growth for once.

2. Easy and Cheap availability of Contraceptives

Ensuring that people have easy and cheap access to contraception tools will help avoiding cases of unwanted pregnancies and births. Every state owned hospital should be made to provide cheaply efficient birth control medicines or surgeries since poor people have neither the means not awareness to use contraception. Use of condoms and contraceptives must be advertised and promoted along with ensuring cheap and ready access to these. Contraceptives do not only prove to be an important population control measure but also prevents spreading of sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS thus ensuring small healthy families.

3. Eradicate Poverty

Why most poor countries have highest population growth instead of rich ones. Poverty has a direct relation to the population growth. In developing countries of Asia and Africa, child labor, slave trading and human trafficking is highly prevalent. African countries for example still have maximum reporting of slave trading though trading of humans is legally banned everywhere in the world. People give birth to kids and sell them to rich people who in turn employ these kids in various laborious and unethical tasks. If not sell, these parents force their kids to beg or work at a very tender so as to earn some extra money for the family. These people believe that more kids mean more hands for begging and work and thus more money. Without concrete measures for growth and poverty eradication, other methods of population control may prove to be ineffective.

4. Education

Education forms the backbone of an individual and economy. Once educated people know and understand the harms which a high population growth rate possesses. Education, especially women education, can work wonders in controlling population. An educated man and woman can readily understand the benefits of a small family. Without sufficient education most measures like awareness campaigns and women empowerment will prove to be insufficient and pointless.

5. Delayed Marriages

The problem of child marriage is highly prominent in certain countries with high population like India, Pakistan or Bangladesh. A marriage at a tender age leads to a long span for giving birth. Also young age marriage devoid people of the education and awareness required to be sensitive towards and understand the consequences of raising too many children. A UN report has suggested that there would be a significant decline in world population if the legal for marriage is made 20 years.

6. Medical Facilities

One big drawback of developing countries is that of limited and highly centric medical facilities. Because of the high rural-urban divide in developing countries, availability of good hospitals and doctors is limited to urban centers thus resulting in high infant mortality rate in rural areas. Rural people, in order to ensure that at least some of their kids survive, give birth to more and more kids thus contributing to the population growth. If provided with optimum medical facilities population rate will almost certainly decline.

7. Legislative Actions

Not much result can be achieved from these if family planning and use of contraception remains optional instead of mandatory. Strict legal steps are required for child marriage, education, abolition of child labor and beggary and family planning to reap significant benefits from it. Proper enforcement of laws related to child labor, slavery and beggary will ensure that parents don’t sell their children or send them out to work thus forcing them to raise lesser number of kids.

8. Providing Incentives

Incentives have proved to be an efficient policy measure in combating most development issues including population. Providing a health, educational or even financial incentive can be a highly effective population measure. There are certain incentive policies like paying certain some of money to people with not more than two kids or free or discounted education for single child etc. which are in place in most developing countries facing population related challenges and has also proved to be a useful measure.

9. Spread Awareness

People need to be told and made to understand the consequences of having too many children. Government and non-government institutions can carry awareness campaigns informing people how they will be unable to provide good nutrition, education or medical facilities to their children if they have too many. Population is also a reason for illiteracy and diseases and malnutrition and the negative effects of it are required to be communicated to the general public to expand their reasoning and understanding.

10. Women Empowerment

In most developing countries, the women folks are not considered equivalent to men in terms of force and might. Such opinions are extremely common in Islamic countries and even India and Bangladesh. Gender discrimination is a major reason for population growth. People keep giving birth to kids in order to have more sons than daughters. Empowering woman with a say in matters concerning them like child birth and educating them to fight against discrimination will ensure a healthy and aware society.

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