The Root of India’s Development Problems Is Over population
Introduction
Relevant Quotes
- “Given that there is a fixed quantity of land, population growth will eventually reduce the amount of resources that each individual can consume, ultimately resulting in disease, starvation, and war”- Thomas Malthus
- Overpopulation refers to an undesirable condition where human population exceeds the available natural resources to feed and sustain it. Rapid population growth is the bane of the economy of underdeveloped, poor and developing countries in the world. Development can be understood generally as overall increase in living standards, reduced economic inequality and poverty, and increased life expectancy and education levels of society etc.Gender equality, social,Political and Economic justice and freedome,peace and prosperity in society etc
- Over-population retards economic development. All efforts at economic development under fast growing population turn out to be “Writing on sand with waves of population growth washing away all that we have written. India is the second most populous country in the world, after China and has been proposed to be the world’s most-populous country by 2024.India, the largest democratic country in the world covers 2.4% of the total land of the world and 16% of the total world population inhabits in it. Every year about 1.6 crores persons are added to its population. In fact, the population of India has increased from 102.7 crores in 2001 to 121.01 crores in 2011.
- Overpopulation is among the more serious problems that our country is facing, as it accounts for more than 1.20 billion people of the over 7 billion population of the world.Some of the Indian states outnumber several countries in population. Uttar Pradesh with a population of 166 million leaves behind the Russian Federation, home to 146.9 million people. Similarly, Orissa’s population exceeds that of Canada, and Chhattisgarh’s that of Australia.Furthermore India’s population is expected to grow to 1.8 billion before stabilizing around the middle of this century, if sufficient measures are taken.
- It is often argued that compared to other countries, India lags behind due to its vast population,The causes for the development problems that persist in India are complex and multidimensional.Thus,though overpoluation is not the only cause for various developmental problems in India but is one of major roadblocks to India’s development process due to limited resources. Limited resources and a larger population puts pressures on the resources that do exist. More people means more mouths to feed, more health care and education services to provide, and so forth
- Temporal Elaboration
- Points to think
- In initial stages of human history as well as pre-history, the human population grew at a snail’s speed till 17th century (i.e. .002% per year) with advancement in science, agriculture and industry the population growth began to accelerate.
- It took mankind more than a million years to reach the first billion around the year 1800. By the year 1900, a second billion was added and the twentieth century has added another 3.7 billion.
- The present world population is estimated at 6.8 billion. Every four days the world population increases by one million.
How overpopulation is Roadblock in India’s Development
- Rise in unemployment: A rapidly increasing population plunges the economy into mass unemployment and under-employment. As population increases, the proportion of workers to total population rises. But in the absence of complementary resources, it is not possible to expand jobs. Generating employment for a huge population in a country like India is very difficult. Unemployment rate is thus showing an increasing trend. Thus overpopulation leading to rise in unemployment has become a hurdle for development in India.
- Low rate of capital formation: overpopulation retards capital formation. As population increases, per capita available income declines. People are required to feed more children with the same income. It means more expenditure on consumption and a further fall in already low savings and consequently in the level of investment. Low capital formation retards the economic growth of the country and low growth leads to less development.
- Environmental damage and Pollution: overpopulation leads to environmental damage. Scarcity of land due to rapidly increasing population pushes large number of people to ecologically sensitive areas such as hillsides and tropical forests. It leads to over grazing and cutting of forests for cultivation leading to severe environmental damage. Moreover, the pressure of rapid growth of population forces people to obtain more food for themselves and their livestock. As a result, they over-cultivate the semi-arid areas. This leads to desertification over the long run when land stops yielding anything. This demonstrates that overpopulation inhibits the process of Environmental development.
- Overuse of Natural and other resources: Overpopulation increases burden on country’s resources as it tend to overuse them. This is particularly the case in developing countries like India, where the majority of people are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. Overpopulation tends to overexploit land and water. Further, the rate at which resources are being generated is not adequate to provide for the ever-growing population and this creates a mismatch. For example: Though India has a very vast transport network, but it is still inadequate owing to increasing population. This shows that overpopulation hampers development process in India.
- Disguised unemployment:In developing countries like India, people mostly live in rural areas and Agriculture is their occupation. So with population growth the land man ratio is distributed. Pressure of population on land rises because land supply is inelastic. It adds to disguised unemployment and reduces per capita productivity. Thus impacts development of the nation.
- Unremunerative Agricuture:With rapidly increasing population, agricultural holding become smaller and unremunerative to cultivate.As a result the use of improved technology and other improvements on land are not possible. Capital formation in agriculture suffers and the economy is bogged down to the subsistence level. Thus, overpopulation becomes a bane for agriculture based economy like India and affects its development.
- Overstrained Social Infrastructure: Rapidly growing population necessitates large investments in social infrastructure and diverts resources from directly productive assets. Development of infrastructural facilities is unfortunately not keeping pace with the growth of population Due to scarcity of resources, it is not possible to provide educational, health, medical,sanitation, transport and housing facilities to the entire population. There is over-crowding everywhere. As a result, the quality of these services goes down. To provide these social infrastructures requires huge investment.Thus,overpopulation becomes the root cause for developmental problems in India.
- 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.This gives rise to social tensions,disputes and violence.For example:Naxalism,terrorism,Casteism,communalism,regionalism etc.
- Increased Poverty and increase in crime rate
- Slumization
- Food insecurity
|
Other challenges for Development Process In India
|
Suggestions to convert population into an asset for India
-
- Promotion of education especially women education with more emphasis on academical as well as vocational training
- Social and economic development, especially of the poor sections of the society.Creation of Employment opportunities
- We cannot talk about turning the rising population into an asset without taking into account the problems of corruption, poverty and illiteracy which go hand in hand and have been creating hurdle in the country’s progress as a whole.
- There is a need for the implementation of the government schemes like National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme in the rural areas at a massive scale so that more and more people are able to join the national mainstream
- There is a need to make the rural population of the country more and more literate and bring them out of poverty. The schools in the villages need to be made more developed with the curriculum and education system matching with that of the schools in the cities.
- The public schemes targeting the poor need to be implemented properly and honestly because after that it would be easy to bring the large chunk of the country’s population into national mainstream so that they are able to play a decisive role in nation building.
- India needs various job schemes in the interior regions where there is not much industrial activity.
- No capital in the world can substitute the human capital, the Indian state and the government need to properly utilize its skilled and talented population
- More Government supported programs on the lines of Skill India,Stand-up India,New India etc needs to be initiated to provide much needed push to development process in India
Some Relevant Facts
|
Conclusion
- The above analysis shows that overpopulation population has slowed down the pace of economic development and is big constraint for development in India. It is found that the fast increasing population makes the task of absorbing the labor force in productive activities all the more difficult. So large increase in population is more a liability than an asset in the developing countries like India.Drinking water, sewage treatment, inadequate rainfall, rapid depletion of natural resources, extinction of many plant and animal species due to deforestation and loss of eco-systems, increased level of life-threatening air and water pollution, high infant and child mortality rate and hunger due to extreme poverty are some of the results of over-population.
- Further, consequences of overpopulation are a problem that the whole world will face sooner or later. It’s not just India’s struggle, Brazil and China are also coping with the ramifications of overpopulation. It’s time for all global forums to provide effective solutions in order to resolve this problem.Despite this the correlation between population growth and economic development could be favorable only when increasing population is proportionate to resources available in country and resources are to be exploited in its full capacity, in effective and efficient manner by the skillful, talented human resources in the countries like India.
- Overpopulation can only be solved by spreading awareness of and implementing measures like birth control and access to birth control devices. Major steps which have been already implemented but still need to be emphasised more to control population. Increasing the welfare and status of women and girls, spread of education, increasing awareness for the use of contraceptives and family planning methods, sex education, encouraging male sterilisation and spacing births, encouraging female empowerment, more health care centres for the poor , to name a few, can play a major role in controlling population.
- India’s strengths in the global world in various fields cannot be ignored, whether in science & technology, medicine and health care, business and industry, military, communication, entertainment, literature and many more. If training, skills resources and taxes are used in proper way ,population can be converted into boon. Huge population is not a burden,with proper investment in developing their skills they can be treated as asset.