Population Problem
The population of India multiplying at such an alarming rate that it is nullifying all the progress our country is making. The agricultural green revolution brought about with such gigantic effort is today out stripped by increased population. Now we are again importing food. Similarly all the fruits of the developmental endeavours in other fields also are being squandered away. The population explosion is triggering off social tensions, intolerance and sectarian violence. There is big pressure on jobs and opportunities. Unemployment is snowballing, living standard is going down and life is becoming cheap.
India in population is second only to China. But we should bear in mind China in area is two and a half times larger than India. It will illustrate how acute our population problem is. After independence infant mortality rate has gone down and average life expectation has considerably increased. Epidemics have been eradicated largely. That aggravates the population problem. Above factors have resulted in rapid increase in the population of young people. At the same time the people over sixty years of age have gone up in number: ber Consequently, the clash of ideas and interest between the two extreme age groups has also increased. This generation gap is creating sparks of conflict.
Today, we are more than one billion people and becoming more every second. By the time you finish reading this essay there will be 400-500 more Indians than when you started to read. Efforts to check this crippling increase have been feeble. Some harsh steps were taken to check it during emergency period 1975-77 but the government lost power on that very score.
Since then no political party dares to talk of using coercive measures for family planning. The politicians are evasive about it. But the problem is very real. At the current rate of growth we shall become most populous and dense country of the world. That in other words, means frightening situation of unemployment, housing, education and health. The main causes of baby boom in India are due to abject ignorance, illiteracy, superstitions, religious and communal prejudices. Orthodox people of rural areas consider babies to be the gifts of God. They out rightly reject family planning measures. For poor sections babies are economic assets as child labour. Such parents don’t believe that they have any responsibilities to their children.
It is about time the policy makers, leaders, population, health and family experts came together to workout means to check the population growth. They should find out why family planning measures are not succeeding in India whereas they did in China and Sri Lanka?
A multi-pronged approach is needed. The socio-economic factors like age of marriage, female literacy, rate of mortality, status of woman and poverty should be considered and thoroughly analyzed. That would lead to more meaningful population control programmes. The law against the marriage of minors should be strictly enforced. Through political consensus ‘Two Children’ norm should be made mandatory. More sterilization facilities plus attractive incentives should be provided in small towns and villages. The couples adhering to ‘Two Children’ norm must be given old age insurance cover so that they don’t have to worry even if their both children are females.
Then, ignorance and poverty are at once both the cause and effect of .population explosion. A fast economic development should be coupled with education on family planning. The people should be made aware of the fact that only a planned family could sustain economic well being. The press, TV, radio and other mass communication media must participate in massive drive to propagate the family planning, birth control measures and their desirability for the survival of our society and country.
Our experts must consider the fact that even a Muslim neighbour like Bangladesh has been able to reduce fertility rate faster than us. So, there is something lacking in our own approach or planning. Like our neighbours we too must make family planning and welfare programmes as people’s movement. If we do not check population growth everything else we do will be meaningless.
