News Highlight
Recently, the world’s population has touched eight billion. India’s population is expected to grow for another 40 years, and It’s time to discuss depopulation.
Key Takeaway
- By current United Nations estimates, India’s population will decline only in 2063.
What is depopulation?
- It is a substantial reduction in the population of an area. In other words, the condition of having reduced numbers of inhabitants (or no inhabitants at all).
The need for the depopulation
- Unemployment
- Generating employment for a considerable population in India is very difficult.
- The number of illiterate persons increases every year.
- The unemployment rate is thus showing an increasing trend.
- Pressure on infrastructure
- The development of infrastructural facilities could keep up with the population’s growth.
- The result is a 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, and forests are overexploited. As a result, there is also a scarcity of resources.
- Inequitable income distribution
- In the face of an increasing population, unequal distribution of income and inequalities within the country widen.
The Government initiatives
- Central Family Planning Board
- After independence, a Population Policy Committee was created in 1952, which suggested the appointment of a Family Planning Research and Programmes Committee in 1953.
- A Central Family Planning Board was created in 1956, which emphasised sterilisation.
- The First National Population Policy
- In 1976, the First National Population Policy was framed by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Planning, which suggested a broad spectrum of programmes, including raising the statutory age of marriage, introducing monetary incentives, paying particular attention to improving female literacy, etc.
- The National Population Policy 2000
- It was to address the unmet needs for contraception, health care infrastructure, and health personnel and to provide integrated service delivery for primary reproductive and child health care.
Way forward
- Social Measure
- Population outburst is considered to be a social problem, and it is intensely rooted in civilisation.
- It is, therefore, necessary to make efforts to eliminate the social iniquities in the country.
- Minimum age of Marriage
- As fertility depends on the marriage age, the minimum marriage age should be raised.
- In India minimum age for marriage is 21 years for men and 18 years for women, fixed by law.
- Raising the Status of Women
- Women should be given opportunities to develop socially and economically.
- Such as, free education should be given to them.
- Adoption
- It is also an effective way to curb the population.
- Some parents do not have any children, despite expensive medical treatment.
- It is recommended that they should adopt orphan children. It will be helpful to orphan children and children with fewer couples.
- Adhering to the Cairo consensus
- Cairo International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 stressed population.
- The Cairo Consensus called for promoting reproductive rights, empowering women, universal education, and maternal and infant health to untangle the knotty issue of poverty and high fertility.
Content Source: The Hindu