Population plays an important role in the economic development of the country. Population of any country is as asset but up to a certain limit. One of the gravest development issues most developing countries in the world are facing is population, India being one of them. The population of India is 1.252 billion due to which India suffers the problem of OVER-POPULATION. Instead of it being an asset day by day the ever increasing population is becoming a threat for the country.
Excessive population has various adverse effects including undue pressure on natural resources. More people mean more consumption which in turn means more exploitation of fixed and exhaustible resources. Also population is not a universal challenge; it is specific to nations whose economies have yet not achieved full potential and development. It also leads to inadequate distribution of wealth and opportunities among people, lack of land for habitat, spread of diseases and malnutrition and so on.
So what is the reason for this increasing population? Well there are a number of reasons. Every issue that our society faces is like a link of a chain. Each and every issue is connected to one another directly or indirectly. Illiteracy is the mother of all issues giving birth to several other issues like poverty, unemployment and over population. In India majority of the population lives in villages, where there is lack of awareness and education among the people. The overall literacy rate of our country is 74% approx out of which may be not even half of it are from the villages. As a result of lack of education people are unaware of family planning which leads to over population. In villages, the system of “Hum Do Hamare Paanch or even more” is followed, which is why the population is increasing in villages.
On the other hand if you take a close look, the population of our country is more in the metropolitan cities rather than villages. Mumbai is India’s largest city which highest population. This is not because people are unaware, people in cities have well-versed knowledge about family planning, so they do not prefer more than one or two children. The reason of population being more in urban areas than rural is due to availability of opportunities for education and employment which is crowding up the cities.
So what can be done to solve the problem of over-population? Effective measures should be undertaken to get population under control.
- Education forms the backbone and Literacy is another indicator of economic development. Once the people are educated about the problems related to over population, this can be brought under control. Also women and men should be given equal opportunities and education facilities.
- Poverty has direct relation with population growth of the country. Children are given birth and sold to people or labour which they in return earn money. If they are not sold, these children are forced to beg. They believe that more kids mean more hands for begging and work and thus more money.Without the problem of poverty being solved, nothing can come under control.
- Awareness should be spread among the people, they should be told about the adverse effects and consequences of having many children. So it is required to communicate with people and expand their understanding on this topic.
- Laws and strict legislative actions should be entrusted on people to for birth control, begging and selling their kids.
- Medical facilities should be provided to people even in villages where there are no proper doctors and medical facilities for people. It should be ensured that people have easy and cheap access to contraceptive pills and other birth control medicines and surgeries to avoid unwanted pregnancies and births.
- Providing financial incentive could be one way to control birth by providing incentive policies to people like free education for a single child or money for people with not more than two kids. This can help control birth rate.
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