Tag: Population of india

Effects of Population on Geography of India

We can’t imagine a world without humans. Who will use earth’s resources and the environment? Human beings develop the economy and society. The people invent resources and use them for their needs. Their growth and characteristic give the background for understanding all aspects of the environment. Human beings are consumers of earth’s resources. It is important to keep track of all the people living, and their increase in number.

Size of India’s Population

The current population of India is 1,394,901,748 according to United Nations data. All these people are unevenly distributed across 3.28 million square kilometers of our geographical area. This is due to the varying population density of India. Population density is the total number of people per unit area. Population density is totally dependent on the geographical location and factors. India is one of the most populated country in the world.

Population Change

The number and density of population is constantly changing. It is generally determined by the growth per annum. Population growth can be determined in terms of percentage change per year. India’s population is consequently increasing steadily. Important aspect of the population growth is – births, deaths, and migration.

Birth rate – It is the number of births per thousand persons in a year.

Death rate – It is the number of deaths per thousand persons in a year.

Migration – It is the movement of people across regions and territories.

Birth rate is always increasing than death rate. High birth rate and declining death rate led to a large difference between birth rates and death rates.

Migration can be internal or international. Internal migration does not lead to population change, but it does affect the population density in the migrated areas. Migration plays a very significant role in changing the composition and distribution of population.

Characteristics of Population Change

Age Composition

It refers to the number of people in different age groups. The percentage of a population found within the children of different age groups, determines the social and economic structure of the nation. Population of a nation generally categorised into three broad categories:

  • Children – below 15 years
  • Working-age – 15- 59 years
  • Aged (Senior) – 59 years and above

Sex Ratio

It is the number of females per 1000 males in the population. India’s sex ratio helps in understanding the equality of males and females in the society, which consequently gives an idea of the nation’s culture.

Literacy rate

Literacy rate determines the social and economic structure of the country. Noteworthy, there has been a steady increase in literacy level in India. According to the census the literacy rate in the country is 74.04%.

Occupational Structure

The percentage of population that is involved in economic activities leads to economic growth of the country. Distribution of the population according to different types of occupation is know as occupational structure. This is an important element of the population of India. Also, our occupational structure has three broad categories –

  • Primary occupation – agriculture, fishing, mining, animal husbandry, forestry etc.
  • Secondary occupation – manufacturing, building, construction work etc.
  • Tertiary occupation – communication, transportation, administration etc.
Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

The study reveals that the country’s population growth is imposing an increasing burden on the country’s limited and continually degrading natural resource base.  The natural resources are under increasing strain, even though the majority of people survive at subsistence level. Population pressure on arable land contributes to the land degradation. The increasing population numbers and growing affluence have already resulted in rapid growth of energy production and consumption in India. The environmental effects like ground water and surface water contamination; air pollution and global warming are of growing concern owing to increasing consumption levels. Population is a dynamic phenomenon.

Should India adapt A two child policy ?

The population of India is approximately 1.38 billion (as of 2021) and the population growth rate for 2020 is 0.99%. The population of our country has been majorly blamed for many of the problems that reside here. And the fact that the poor population has been the one rising much faster makes it even worse.
To this problem, the solution suggested by most of the citizens has been “A two child policy” in India. Similar to the one child policy adapted by China. Well, today we are going to analyse if adapting a two child policy will even help India in any way or not .

Why is our population growing so rapidly ?
  1. The monopoly behind subsidies- Government basically spoon feeds the poor of our country if it fails to provide them with enough job opportunities. In the greed of more and more subsidies, the people from the impoverished section of the country make more children, as suggested by statistics.
  2. Reservation- There is more than enough reservations for the socially and economically backward sections in jobs and colleges. These people particularly have a better chance of getting money through these jobs if they have more children. As a result of this thought process, their population keeps on increasing.

In this context, a two child policy where subsidies and reservations are only provided till the extent of two children only might help in slowing down our population.

  1. Lack of awareness and moral education- The people, especially of the impoverished section of the society have not compulsorily been provided with enough moral and sex education. Some of them also see women as machines for producing children and there is also a lot of gender based discrimination because of the lack of values.
But why are some people still against the two child policy ?
  1. Gender discrimination- Some of our politicians and judges have argued that a two child policy might result in an even steeper fall in the sex ratio of our country . It might result into more female foeticide in the face of following the government policy.
  2. Unsafe abortions- This policy might also result into a higher abortion rate in our country. People will move on to more unsafe abortions, again, due to the lack of knowledge and increasing poverty.
  3. Increased population contributes to GDP- The reason of India being in the third place in the whole world in terms of GDP, is its population (the manpower). Here, we can state that India’s major problem is not its population, but its failure in putting the use of the potential of that population to a more superficial use.
  4. Generation gap- Through the observation done on a case study of China, it can be concluded that a two child or one child policy can result into lesser young people (the working population) in a country and hence, the depletion of our economy.

In conclusion, while better laws are big need of the hour, better education is a bigger need of the hour ! And a resourceful environment can only be built with better values and belief system.