How to tackle overpopulation

By M.M. Goel

The fear of unexpected threats can be taken care of by knowledge of proper, practical and productive (3P) use of hands, hearts and heads (3H) constituting real education and not the so-called literacy programs which are insufficient and inefficient. Today, most of the challenges before international organizations and national governments are caused by problem of population.

The United Nations' World Population Day instituted in 1989 as an outgrowth of the Day of Five Billion, was marked on July 11, 1987. Since then, it is annually observed on July 11 to reaffirm the human right to plan for a family. This encourages activities, events and information to help make this right a reality throughout the world. The best thing that everyone can do is to have fewer children.

To increase public awareness on various population issues such as the importance of family planning for family welfare and development including gender equality, poverty, maternal health and human development, we need to observe the day with commitment to control the population which causes various ills around the world.

The United Nations authorized the event as a vehicle to build awareness of population issues and the impact they have on development and the environment. Since then, with the United Nations Population Fund's (UNFPA) encouragement, governments, non-governmental organizations, institutions and individuals organize various educational activities to celebrate the annual event.

The logo of the United Nations. is often associated with marketing and promotional material for this event. It features a projection of a world map (minus Antarctica) centered on the North Pole, enclosed by olive branches. The olive branches symbolize peace and the world map represents all the people of the world. It has been featured in colors such as blue against a yellow background.

In a Malthusian sense, the overpopulation is a kind of situation that exists in India because its population is increasing more rapidly than its supply of food. The rate of growth of population is greater than the rate of growth of food production. The problems of overpopulation are: food problems, malnutrition, famine, disease, fall in per capita income, inadequate agricultural production, poor standard of living and above all unemployment.

The world population is currently estimated to be 6.93 billion by the United States Census Bureau. The world population has experienced continuous growth since 1350 when it was about 300 million. The highest rates of growth ― increases above 1.8 percent per year ― were seen briefly during the 1950s, for a longer period during the 1960s and 1970s; the growth rate peaked at 2.2 percent in 1963, and declined to 1.1 percent by 2009. Annual births have reduced to 140 million since their peak at 173 million in the late 1990s, and are expected to remain constant, while deaths number 57 million per year and are expected to increase to 80 million by 2040. Current projections show a continued increase of population (but a steady decline in the population growth rate) with the population expected to reach between 7.5 and 10.5 billion in 2050.

The "Day of 7 Billion" has been targeted by the United States Census Bureau to be in July 2012, while the Population Division of the United Nations suggests Aug. 26, 2011.

Asia accounts for over 60 percent of the world’s population with more than 4 billion people. China and India together have about 37 percent of the world's population. Africa follows with 1 billion people, 15 percent of the world's population while Europe's 733 million people make up 11 percent. Latin America and the Caribbean region are home to 589 million (9 percent), Northern America is to 352 million (5 percent) and Oceania to 35 million (0.5 percent).

Indian Census 2011 is the 15th census (the first was in 1872) which was conducted on March 1.

The population of India is 1.2 billion which is the second largest in the world after China (1.3 billion). India accounts for approximately 17.5 percent of the world’s population whereas it has only 3 percent of the total global geographical area. The density of population of an area shows concentration of population in that area. The density of population of India has increased from 325 in 2001 to 385 in 2011. The proportion of children in the age group 0-6 to total population in India is 13 percent.

The measures for population control are necessary but not sufficient. Overemphasis on female participation and a soft approach toward males is not in good taste. To make it sufficient, there is an urgent need of sex education among all with a rhythmic method of population control which is the duty of the parents to tell their children for all times to come. It possesses the potential to do wonders. There is a strong case for making, bearing and rearing a child costly. We need to adopt a suitable pricing policy for birth, death, marriage and pregnancy registration which can act as source of financing the family welfare program (FWP) in a big way.

The program deserves to be given the status of basic infrastructural activity for making it a human resource development activity in the strict sense. We will benefit from the demographic dividend claimed by the data of the 2001 census, consisting of 58.2 percent people in the age group 15-60, the productive age group for work which is likely to increase to 68.4 percent in 2026. The actual realization of the demographic dividend cannot be thought of without a concrete plan of action. This calls for awakening the youth for education and training. We are truly emerging as a knowledge economy. Every boy and girl is seeking opportunity to join a school, college, university and professional institution. To humanize and harmonize the society, we need to remove built-in inequalities rooted in the caste system by learning from South Korea sharing a common Independence Day with us and which has become an international donor from an aid-seeking nation within the shortest period of time. One of the factors for this spectacular performance is a harmonized casteless society. To be ready to reduce risks of overpopulation, we need to recruit, retrain in relationships, the human resources with retention and respect in family welfare programs.

The writer is chair professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, and originally belongs to Kurukshetra University (India). He can be reached at mmgoel2001@yahoo.co.in.