IS INDIA POPULATION GROWING RAPIDLY? NO!
India population: Is sterilization the answer?
Can population explosion destroy India?
Why India is no villain
*Since India’s independence has population growth overtaken food production?
No
Since India’s independence, its population has grown slightly less than 3 times, while food production has grown over 4 times.
*Does higher population density leads to lower economic progress.
No
*Orissa has a low population density (236 compared to 324 India) but the proportion of people living below the poverty line is the highest ( 47%).
*Kerala on the other hand has a much higher population density ( 819) but is economically better off.
*Netherlands and Japan have higher population densities than ours, but they are rich developed countries.
*Is India’s population growing rapidly?
No
*India’s current population growth rate is the lowest in the last in fifty years
*Large proportion of the population is young and in reproductive age group leading to momentum effect.
*High fertility in some places because of unmet needs (there is a desire without services being available) for contraception
*High fertility due to high infant mortality rate in some places
*Over 50% girls are married before the age of 18- leading to “too early, too frequent, too many”. 33% births occur before 24 months of the earlier birth
*The world’s natural resources are getting depleted at a very high rate because of high population of the poor in countries like India.
False
There is a difference in consumption between the affluent and poor both between and within countries. It is often the small well-off section of the population who consume a lion’s share of the resources, 70% of the world’s resources are consumed by the affluent 20% . They also contribute 70% to global pollution.
*The two child norm is not only useful from a population and development point of view but is also good for women’s health
No
Having a two-child norm implies
that the state enforces two children per family by law
has system of incentives and disincentives/punishments for achieving it.
A two-child norm has the potential to cause immense harm to women’s health in the existing social situation where son preference is high and women’s status is very low.
Some of the risks include
• increase of health risks for women
• increase in sex selective abortion and consequent reduction of girl children
• less attention to women’s health issues including maternal health leading to increase in maternal mortality and morbidity
• pressure and coercion on the weak and vulnerable – women, dalits, STs and so on.
And there is no guarantee that the population growth rate will be affected at the end of it all!
R.S.Dahiya
