Human population growth is becoming a huge issue in our world today.
The population is increasing rapidly. The reason that it is becoming a
concern is because it has affected the economic, environmental, and
social aspects of our world. In the film Frontline: Heat, we can see
how there might not be a future for our planet unless we are able to
reduce the emissions and make our world a safe place. Not only for the
present but also for future generations so that they are able to live
long and healthy lives.
An increase in human population can influence our economy. Some of the factors that are affected are unemployment, poverty and the restriction of economic expansion. When the population increases, the cost of health, education, and other areas of urban growth are affected .According to the U.S Census Bureau the current world population is estimated to be about 6,770,332,394 people and still growing exponential. Also the world population is suppose to be over 8 billion people by 2025, and 9.5 billion by 2050 (U.S. Census Bureau). The only way to prevent this problem from becoming a world epidemic is by truly understanding some of the causes of the problem and what this problem might bring to the future of mankind.
The world population growth is moving exponentially up in a J curve, which is normal for populations in nature with abundant resources. Surprisingly the human population has not yet reached the carrying capacity (Michigan U.). 11,000 years ago during the time of the agricultural revolution around 9,000 B.C. the population was approximately five million.
Overpopulation is responsible for the deterioration of the quality of human life in all parts of the world. It has been responsible for the intolerable gap in living standards between the rich and poor people. The rich are getting richer, but the more numerous poor are getting poorer.
I myself, being from the second most populated country in the world, India, with a population of over one billion, can relate to and identify with the curses of overpopulation and the immediate need to control the current population explosion.
One of the major problems that India faces is overpopulation. The population of India is expected to surpass China by 2050 and reach the two million mark by the year 3000. Although the crude birth rate has decreased from 50 per thousand to 36 per thousand as of 1995, still a lot needs to be done to rescue India from the shackles of overpopulation.
Overpopulation in India has considerably affected the lives of its people by degrading the standard of living and threatening the cultural environment of the Indian masses. Poverty is rampant.
"It is estimated that 300 million Indians live below the poverty level. Unless steps are taken to curb this massive population explosion, experts predict a social explosion in the coming years. According to Amartya Sen., India's Nobel prize-winning economist, the literacy rate is 52% of adults, and malnourishment strikes 64% of the Indian children. A recent study showed that more than half of the children under 12 in seven Indian cites are affected with lead poisoning." (www.secularhumanism.org)
Thus the Population explosion is burdening the people of India both economically and socially. During my stay in India I noticed that because of lack of money and population pressure...
, basic amenities like water, electricity, sanitation, housing, transportation, proper health care and good roads are almost non-existent. Diseases like malaria, cholera and other deadly viral diseases are common because of lack of proper sanitation facilities. One can find mosquitoes and other bugs sitting in and infecting open foods, thereby spreading viral diseases.
Also, overpopulation is causing unemployment. Currently about 130 million people are jobless. (www.achi.org). As unemployment is rampant people are willing to work for less than minimum wages which is about $ 1 a day and which by itself is not sufficient for a family to afford a decent standard of living. Also, people are willing to work under hazardous conditions without the required precautions because no other job is available. Because the minimum wage is so low .
In early years human population and population growth has not been an issue. This is because of the variety of different environmental factors. Sickness and disease has played a large role in keeping human population under control since the beginning of time. It seemed that when a population would get over crowded an epidemic such as, the influenza or small pox would break out. This would drastically decrease the population enough that it would be under control again. Famine is another great controller of population. When a famine strikes an area only the few with enough food will be able to reproduce or even survive. An examination of world population control would not be complete with out including war. War also performs wonders at controlling population by murdering most men of child rearing age. In today's day and age, with our current technology increases disease outbreak and famine (except in some 3rd world countries) is not much of a factor any more. War is not considered a valid population control method due to today's "new" wars. Without the three largest population controllers much of a factor any more, population is free to run out of control. This provides us with an ever-increasing controversy; this is whether government or society should dictate
family size.
I believe that society can infringe indirect controls over family size, but these are considered more community norms as opposed to hard fast rules such as governments can set. Two examples will follow. First, we will look at our society. Yes, the USA's turn to no child and one-child families. This was caused by society. Society pushes Americans to have successful careers both male and female. There has been a switch from families to careers. The world today faces many problems despite the fact that it has taken long strides in science, technology and knowledge. One such problem is over population especially in developing countries. The population is growing so fast, that it grows in geometric progression whereas economic goods grow only in Arithmetic progression that demographers say there will not be literally any standing space on earth for her teeming millions. Let us find out the causes for such a growth, the problem or problems such a growth causes and the possible remedies.
The fast growth in population can be attributed to good health, lowering of mortality rate, combating famine when and where it occurs. With the knowledge of science many killer diseases have been literally conquered. For instance, smallpox which used to take a heavy toll of lives has been eradicated from almost all countries, so too has cholera, plague and so on. Even Tuberculosis is kept under control. The wave of flu which accounted for millions of death in 1919 was nothing but a common cold. Infant mortality has been reduced considerably by taking pre-natal and post-natal care. Child mortality is kept under check by protecting the child against Tetanus and Polio. Thus while the number of deaths is reduced, there is no control on birth as a result the population is increasing at a runaway speed.
Again periodic famine in certain countries used to take away the lives of thousands of people. Now with the better management of the world's food, in the matter of production, storage and distribution, no part of the world needs suffer from famine. Add to this the better methods of producing more food that are being adopted. By using better manures and fertilizers, high yielding seeds, by pest control and water management there has been a revolution in food production. These are some positive conditions which contribute to the growth of population.
The growth of population has its problems as we shall see. As there are more and more mouths to be fed, there comes a great strain on the resources of a country; this is real in the case of developing countries with the result they are unable to push ahead economically. As food is not sufficient there is chronic malnutrition in these countries especially in women and children resulting in weaker population who would only economically be a drain on the country as their productive years will be short. As health and education are the State's affair, they affect the country's finances. So in developing countries health and illiteracy continue to be the problem. The unwieldy growth of population leads to the problem of housing and sanitation. In many countries the slums are a sore to the eyes. Slums grow round big cities and are found with all the drawbacks. These are the areas of disease, filth and crime.
Now people have realized, the dangers of over population. Every country is caught up with this problem and population growth control has become an economic necessity. In fact it is a survival necessity. Family planning has become a household word. Though there has been objections on religious and other grounds, people have come to accept family planning as a fact of life. Some countries have taken it seriously that it has become a national effort. Through mass media people are being warned and educated. Inducements are made in the forms of free treatment, earned leave and cash gifts. Men and woman in their productive age can get themselves sterilized. Vast research is going on to introduce simpler methods.
Still the world may be saved from population explosion. May be there are more Green Revolution miracles up the sleeves. May be birth control miracles in the next ten years may save us. Right now the whole world seems bored with Family Planning. Can the world afford the luxury of such boredom ?
The word “Population Growth” has its origin from the latin words ‘Populus’ meaning people. According to ecological term; “population is group of people of the same species occupying a particular space”.
Population is subdivided further into demes or local population which is group of interbreeding organism in demes; they share a common gene pool. Population density is defined as a number of individual per unit area or per unit volume of environment.
When the size of the individual is uniform the density is expressed in terms of number of individuals. In case of mixed population it is expressed in biomass density.
Population density is also measured as abundance of absolute number of population. Generally, in an area smaller animals are more abundant than larger animals.
Crude density is the density per unit total space. For e.g., in plant species like Cassia torn individuals are found more crowded in shady patches and few in other parts of same area.
Thus, density in the total area would be crude density, whereas the density value for only shady area would be ecological density.
World Human Population Growth Trend
After every 12 years, the world’s population grows 15,000 each hour or 90 million per year. The rate of natural population growth is 0.5% per year in the developed countries and about 2% in a year in the developing nation. India which has 16% of the world’s total population will continue to be holding this position till 2025.
Cities with more than 10 million populations are called mega cities. In 1992 there were 14 and in 2005 there were 24 megacities.
The precisely statistical study of human population is called demography. It takes in account the age and sex ratio of human population. Moreover their size is also considered to make future predictions about population growth.
Affects of Population Growth
i. The rapid growth of population balances the country’s political and administrative apparatus plus it imposes a variety of burdens on the social structure also. Population growth affects the medical, educational, water, housing service and creates problems to the govt.
ii. Over exploitation of land, resources of food and fuel in developing countries results in to making the country more and more poor. It happens due to oversized population.
Causes of Rapidly Growing Populations
Main Factors:
(a) High birth rate, low death rate and more immigrants.
(b) Various racial and economic factors for high birth rate.
Economic Factors:
(a) Poverty
(b) More village and slow rate of urbanization.
(c) Dominance of agriculture and unchanged occupational distribution of populations.
Social Factors:
(a) Lack of education
(b) Joint family system
(c) Universality of marriage
(d) Religious and social superstition which induces people to have more kids.
Measures to Check Population Growth
Social Measures:
(a) Education expansion.
(b) Improvement in women’s conditions.
Economic Measures:
(a) Employment opportunities in urban areas
(b) Equitable distribution of income.
Family Planning Programme (FPP)
It was initiated in 1952 which shed in 1966-67 measures to be taken are as follows:-
1. Promotion of education and employment
2. To remove speculations about family planning measures
3. To extend child health care and nutritional services.
Religion is a very important characteristic of the Indian population and Indian masses are religious par excellence.
Religion is a way of life in India and it affects the social, economic and political structure of society. Different religions followed by different people living in different parts of the country, have created diversity of culture and brought about changes in life style of the masses.
India is the birth place of four major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. The most dominant religion, however, is Hinduism. Hindustan, the land of the Hindus, is one of the names by which India is known.
Hinduism, a religion thousands of years old and whose origin is difficult to trace, evolved out of the varied Indian ways of life, so different and yet in some intangible way unified. The early pre-Vedic Hindu religion got modified in the Vedic period after the middle of the second millennium B.C.
In addition to being the birth place of four major religions of the world, India has embraced other world religions also. For example, Christianity and Islam came to India from other lands. The entry of these two religions in India goes back to almost the first days of their prophets.
Syrian Christians appeared on the West Coast of India in the very first century of the Christian Era. The Arab traders brought Islam to the West Coast of India much before the Muslim conquest of this country. The prosecuted Jews and Zoroastrians (Parsis) found sanctuary on the Indian soil. Sikhism appeared on the religious scene of India only about five centuries ago.
There have been large scale changes in the religious composition of population due to conversions from one faith to another. Spatial pattern of distribution of different religious groups had undergone drastic changes due to large scale migrations as a result of partition of India in 1947.
Before partition, Hindus accounted for 66.5 per cent of the population of the sub-continent and Muslims 23.7 per cent (census 1941). With partition, large number of Muslims migrated from India to Pakistan and Bangladesh and Hindus migrated to India from these countries. Consequently, the proportion of these two religious communities in the total population changed.
The percentage of Hindus rose to 84.1 per cent and that of Muslims fell to 9.8 per cent (census 1951). Since then, the percentage of Hindu population has fallen marginally while that of Muslims has increased considerably.
The percentage of Hindus had fallen from 83.4 per cent in 1961 to 80.5 per cent in 2001 while that of Muslims had increased from 10.7 per cent in 1961 to 13.4 in 2001. However, after making adjustment for Assam and Jammu and Kashmir, where census could not be conducted in 1981 and 1991 respectively, the percentage of the Hindus and Muslims work out at 81.4 and 12.4 respectively in 2001. (See Table 11. 7).
One heartening fact about religious composition of India is that different religious groups have coexisted for the last several centuries even during the troubled times when there have been clashes based on religion. India is the only country in the world where people belonging to different religious faiths are co-existing in peace and harmony.
The Hindus of India account for about 12 per cent of the world population ranking below those professing Christianity and about equal with the followers of Islam, but much above other religions. However, the percentage of Hindus to total population of India is decreasing gradually. It came down from 83.4 per cent in 1961 to 80.5 per cent in 2001. This is largely because of comparatively lower growth rate of the Hindus and partly due to conversion of Hindus into other religious faiths.
For example, the unadjusted Hindu population was registered at 20.3 per cent as against 22.7 per cent for all religions in 1991-2001. But as per adjusted figures the growth rate of the Hindus was 20.0 per cent and against 21.5 per cent recorded for all religions during the decade 1991-2001.
The growth rate of the Hindus had been declining consistently since 1971. It was 24.2 per cent in 1971-81, 22.8 per cent in 1981-91 and fell down to 20 per cent in 1991-2001.
The Hindus constitute the majority community in most states and union territories of India. While the Hindus comprised 80.15 per cent of the total population of India in 2001 they were 95.4 percent in Himachal Pradesh, 94.7 per cent in Chhattisgarh, 94.4 per cent in Orissa, 93.5 per cent in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and 91.1 per cent in Madhya Pradesh (Table 11.9).
However, the Hindus are m minority in certain states and union territory of Lakshadweep. They are outnumbered by the Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir and Lakshadweep, by Sikhs in Punjab, by Christians in Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and almost equalled by unspecified religions and persuasions in Arunachal Pradesh (Fig. 11.6). States and Union territories having Hindus less than 10 per cent of their total population are Nagaland (7.7%), Mizoram (3.6%) and Lakshadweep (3.7%).
In terms of absolute figures, Uttar Pradesh, most populous state, has the largest number of 133.98 million Hindus. This is followed by Maharashtra (77.86 million), Bihar (69.08 million), Andhra Pradesh (67.84 million), West Bengal (58.10 million), Madhya Pradesh (55.0 million), Tamil Nadu (54.98 million), Rajasthan (50.15 million), and Karnataka (44.32 million). These nine states together account for about three-fourths of the total Hindu population of India.
This percentage of growth rate was arrived at by including the Muslim dominated population of Jammu and Kashmir where census could not be conducted in 1991. If adjusted data is considered, the Muslim growth rate will decline from 32.9 per cent during 1981-91 to 29.3 per cent during 1991-2001.
Even this growth rate is much higher when compared to growth rate of Hindus which declined from 22.8 per cent in 1981-1991 to 20.0 per cent in 1991-2001. Muslims have rejected family planning vociferously on religious ground and higher growth rate of the Muslims is the natural sequel.
There was no census in Assam in 1981 and in Jammu and Kashmir in 1991, but heads were counted in the whole country in 1961, 1971 and 2001. The comparison of the growth rates of Hindus and Muslims during this period makes an interesting study.
The Hindu population that was at 453.3 million in 1971 grew to 827.6 million in 2001 registering a growth rate of 82 per cent. The Muslim population grew from 61.4 million in 1971 to 138.2 million in 2001, thus registering an increase of 125 per cent.
Even after making adjustment for population of Jammu and Kashmir, the growth of the Muslims is the highest as per 2001 census figures. This is a dangerous trend and is likely to disturb the demographic set up of the country. The north-eastern states have registered an exceptionally high growth rate of the Muslim population primarily due to exodus of Bangladesh Muslims into these states.
In terms of absolute figures, Uttar Pradesh (30.74 million), West Bengal (20.24 million), Bihar (13.72 million), Maharashtra (10.27 million), Assam (8.20 million), Kerala (7.86 million), Andhra Pradesh (6.99 million), Jammu and Kashmir (6.79 million), Karnataka (6.46 million) are the major states where Muslim population is mainly concentrated.
These nine states account for over four-fifth of the Muslim population of India. Muslims are in small numbers in other states. Curiously, Uttar Pradesh has the largest number of both Hindus and Muslims. This is justified by the fact that this is the most populous state in India with a total population of over 166 million in 2001.
Entirely different picture emerges when we consider the percentage of the Muslim population to the total population of the respective states/union territories. Lakshadweep had the highest percentage of 95.5 per cent Muslims although; this group of Islands had only 57,903 Muslims in 2001.
Among the states, Jammu and Kashmir had the highest percentage of 67 per cent Muslims. The highest concentration of Muslims is found in the Kashmir Valley, where in certain areas the Muslims constitute well over 95 per cent of the total population.
Assam has about 31 per cent of its population consisting of Muslims. In West Bengal, the Muslims account for 25.2 per cent of the total population. Murshidabad is the main area of concentration, where Muslims comprise over 55 per cent of the total population.
Kerala has 24.7 per cent of its population comprised by the Muslims, where Malappuram is the main area of concentration. In Uttar Pradesh 18.5 per cent of the total population is Muslim. Most of the Muslims of Uttar Pradesh are concentrated in Rohilkhand and Upper Ganga plain, where the districts of Rampur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Bareilly, Pilibhit, Saharanpur, Muzaffamagar, Meerut and Ghaziabad have fairly high proportion of Muslims. Muslims constitute less than five per cent of the total population in Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
In 1971, there were 2.6 per cent Christians in India which fell slightly to 2.5 per cent in 1981 and to 2.3 per cent in 1991 and 2001. The north-eastern states are predominantly inhabited by Christians. For example, Christians constitute 90.0 per cent of the total population in Nagaland, 87.0 per cent in Mizoram. 70.3 per cent in Meghalaya and 34.0 per cent in Manipur.
Christians are in large proportion in Goa and Kerala also, where they form 26.7 and 19.0 per cent of the total population respectively. But speaking in absolute figures, Kerala has the largest number of Christians, amounting to about one-fourth of the total Christian population of India. The total number of Christians living in Kerala is over six million (2001). In Kottayam and Emakulam districts of Kerala, Christians account for over 40 per cent of the total population.
There are several other districts in this state where the Christian population ranges between 15 to 25 per cent. After Kerala the important states with Christian population are Tamil Nadu (3.78 million), Arunachal Pradesh (1.79 million), Meghalaya (1.63 million), Andhra Pradesh (1.18 million), Jharkhand (1.09 million) and Maharashtra (1.05 million).
Varying trends are observed with regard to growth rate of the Christians. It was 36.0 per cent in 1961-71 which declined to 19.2 per cent in 1971-81 and to 17.0 per cent in 1981-91. But it increased to 22.1 per cent in 1991-2001.
Thereafter, the percentage of the Sikhs to total population of India has been increasing steadily. They constituted 1.9 per cent of the total population in 2001. Needless to say that the Sikhs are an enterprising race and are scattered in almost all parts of the country.
However, their largest concentration is in Punjab. According to 2001 census figures, 14.59 million Sikhs live in Punjab which is about sixty per cent of the total population of the state. It is estimated that 75.9 per cent of the total Sikhs of the country live in Punjab alone.
This is quite obvious because Sikhism took its roots in the soil of Punjab, where Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikhism preached his teachings. The Sikhs have an absolute majority in the districts of Amritsar, Kapurthala, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Bhatinda, Patiala, Ludhiana, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib and Mansa.
In the neighbouring state of Haryana 1.1 million Sikhs are living according to 2001 census data. This amounts to 5.5 per cent of the total population of the state. Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kamal, Fatehabad and Sirsa are the main districts of Sikh population.
Minor pockets of the Sikh concentration are found in the Tarai region of Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh as well as in Ganganagar, Alwar and Bharatpur districts of Rajasthan. In the union territory of Delhi 5.55 lakh Sikhs are living, which account for 4 per cent of its total population.
The most important factor about the Sikhs is that their rate of growth has declined considerably. It was 32.0 per cent in 1961-71 which came down to 26.2 per cent in 1971-81 and 25.5 per cent in 1981- 91. A steep decline was observed between 1981-91 and 1991-2001. In 1991-2001 their growth rate was 16.9 per cent which was the lowest among all the religious communities.
The Buddhists are largely found in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and the Ladakh District of Jammu and Kashmir. They are also found to a lesser extent in Mizoram, Tripura and Himachal Pradesh.
The concentration of Buddhists in the northern part of India is mainly because it is near here that the Buddhism originated and spread over the Himalayas. In 2001, Maharashtra had the largest number of 5.84 million Buddhists which accounted for 73.5 per cent of the total Buddhist population of India, though it was only 6% of the total population of the state.
The large population of Buddhists in Maharashtra is mostly due to the wholesale conversion of a community of Harijans, following the advice of their leader, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Sikkim’s 152,042 Buddhists, however, give this state the largest proportion of Buddhists in the country, 28.1% of its total population. Other states with reasonably good percentage of Buddhist population are Arunachal Pradesh (13.0 per cent) and Mizoram (7.9 per cent).
The Jains have maintained their growth rate above the national growth rate. However, abnormally low growth rate of only 4.0 per cent in 1981-91 appears to an aberration when compared with the other decades.
It is apparent from 2001 census results that urgent and drastic interventions are required by all concerned including the government and definitely the Parsi community leaders to ensure survival of Parsi population in India. Fertility improvement innovative initiatives rather than fertility control measures adopted by the community so far are possibly the need of the hour before it reaches a point of no return.
It is expected that this loud and clear message from 2001 census results awakens the country and the Parsi community from the deep slumber it is possibly in and have a beneficial effect for them. About 90 per cent of this community is concentrated in the city of Mumbai and the southern coastal Gujarat, around Surat.
As the worlds population continues to grow exponentially, we are starting to discover some not so expected results of the explosion. According to researchers at Cornell University, rare genetic variations are leading to an increase of complex disease.
Since about 2,000 years ago (fewer than 100 generations), the human
population has experienced an explosive growth after 8,000 years of
moderate exponential growth.
This recent accelerated growth has created more genetic mutations and rare gene variants, which may play a role in boosting the risks of complex diseases in which genes play a role, say Cornell University researchers in the journal Science.
When a large sample of 10,000 individuals was used in a model of human population growth, rare genetic variants were detected far more frequently than in previous studies. The new model also shows that the vast majority of these rare variants were due to mutations that arose in the past 2,500 years, coinciding with the explosive growth.
An increase in human population can influence our economy. Some of the factors that are affected are unemployment, poverty and the restriction of economic expansion. When the population increases, the cost of health, education, and other areas of urban growth are affected .According to the U.S Census Bureau the current world population is estimated to be about 6,770,332,394 people and still growing exponential. Also the world population is suppose to be over 8 billion people by 2025, and 9.5 billion by 2050 (U.S. Census Bureau). The only way to prevent this problem from becoming a world epidemic is by truly understanding some of the causes of the problem and what this problem might bring to the future of mankind.
The world population growth is moving exponentially up in a J curve, which is normal for populations in nature with abundant resources. Surprisingly the human population has not yet reached the carrying capacity (Michigan U.). 11,000 years ago during the time of the agricultural revolution around 9,000 B.C. the population was approximately five million.
Overpopulation is responsible for the deterioration of the quality of human life in all parts of the world. It has been responsible for the intolerable gap in living standards between the rich and poor people. The rich are getting richer, but the more numerous poor are getting poorer.
I myself, being from the second most populated country in the world, India, with a population of over one billion, can relate to and identify with the curses of overpopulation and the immediate need to control the current population explosion.
One of the major problems that India faces is overpopulation. The population of India is expected to surpass China by 2050 and reach the two million mark by the year 3000. Although the crude birth rate has decreased from 50 per thousand to 36 per thousand as of 1995, still a lot needs to be done to rescue India from the shackles of overpopulation.
Overpopulation in India has considerably affected the lives of its people by degrading the standard of living and threatening the cultural environment of the Indian masses. Poverty is rampant.
"It is estimated that 300 million Indians live below the poverty level. Unless steps are taken to curb this massive population explosion, experts predict a social explosion in the coming years. According to Amartya Sen., India's Nobel prize-winning economist, the literacy rate is 52% of adults, and malnourishment strikes 64% of the Indian children. A recent study showed that more than half of the children under 12 in seven Indian cites are affected with lead poisoning." (www.secularhumanism.org)
Thus the Population explosion is burdening the people of India both economically and socially. During my stay in India I noticed that because of lack of money and population pressure...
, basic amenities like water, electricity, sanitation, housing, transportation, proper health care and good roads are almost non-existent. Diseases like malaria, cholera and other deadly viral diseases are common because of lack of proper sanitation facilities. One can find mosquitoes and other bugs sitting in and infecting open foods, thereby spreading viral diseases.
Also, overpopulation is causing unemployment. Currently about 130 million people are jobless. (www.achi.org). As unemployment is rampant people are willing to work for less than minimum wages which is about $ 1 a day and which by itself is not sufficient for a family to afford a decent standard of living. Also, people are willing to work under hazardous conditions without the required precautions because no other job is available. Because the minimum wage is so low .
In early years human population and population growth has not been an issue. This is because of the variety of different environmental factors. Sickness and disease has played a large role in keeping human population under control since the beginning of time. It seemed that when a population would get over crowded an epidemic such as, the influenza or small pox would break out. This would drastically decrease the population enough that it would be under control again. Famine is another great controller of population. When a famine strikes an area only the few with enough food will be able to reproduce or even survive. An examination of world population control would not be complete with out including war. War also performs wonders at controlling population by murdering most men of child rearing age. In today's day and age, with our current technology increases disease outbreak and famine (except in some 3rd world countries) is not much of a factor any more. War is not considered a valid population control method due to today's "new" wars. Without the three largest population controllers much of a factor any more, population is free to run out of control. This provides us with an ever-increasing controversy; this is whether government or society should dictate
family size.
I believe that society can infringe indirect controls over family size, but these are considered more community norms as opposed to hard fast rules such as governments can set. Two examples will follow. First, we will look at our society. Yes, the USA's turn to no child and one-child families. This was caused by society. Society pushes Americans to have successful careers both male and female. There has been a switch from families to careers. The world today faces many problems despite the fact that it has taken long strides in science, technology and knowledge. One such problem is over population especially in developing countries. The population is growing so fast, that it grows in geometric progression whereas economic goods grow only in Arithmetic progression that demographers say there will not be literally any standing space on earth for her teeming millions. Let us find out the causes for such a growth, the problem or problems such a growth causes and the possible remedies.
The fast growth in population can be attributed to good health, lowering of mortality rate, combating famine when and where it occurs. With the knowledge of science many killer diseases have been literally conquered. For instance, smallpox which used to take a heavy toll of lives has been eradicated from almost all countries, so too has cholera, plague and so on. Even Tuberculosis is kept under control. The wave of flu which accounted for millions of death in 1919 was nothing but a common cold. Infant mortality has been reduced considerably by taking pre-natal and post-natal care. Child mortality is kept under check by protecting the child against Tetanus and Polio. Thus while the number of deaths is reduced, there is no control on birth as a result the population is increasing at a runaway speed.
Again periodic famine in certain countries used to take away the lives of thousands of people. Now with the better management of the world's food, in the matter of production, storage and distribution, no part of the world needs suffer from famine. Add to this the better methods of producing more food that are being adopted. By using better manures and fertilizers, high yielding seeds, by pest control and water management there has been a revolution in food production. These are some positive conditions which contribute to the growth of population.
The growth of population has its problems as we shall see. As there are more and more mouths to be fed, there comes a great strain on the resources of a country; this is real in the case of developing countries with the result they are unable to push ahead economically. As food is not sufficient there is chronic malnutrition in these countries especially in women and children resulting in weaker population who would only economically be a drain on the country as their productive years will be short. As health and education are the State's affair, they affect the country's finances. So in developing countries health and illiteracy continue to be the problem. The unwieldy growth of population leads to the problem of housing and sanitation. In many countries the slums are a sore to the eyes. Slums grow round big cities and are found with all the drawbacks. These are the areas of disease, filth and crime.
Now people have realized, the dangers of over population. Every country is caught up with this problem and population growth control has become an economic necessity. In fact it is a survival necessity. Family planning has become a household word. Though there has been objections on religious and other grounds, people have come to accept family planning as a fact of life. Some countries have taken it seriously that it has become a national effort. Through mass media people are being warned and educated. Inducements are made in the forms of free treatment, earned leave and cash gifts. Men and woman in their productive age can get themselves sterilized. Vast research is going on to introduce simpler methods.
Still the world may be saved from population explosion. May be there are more Green Revolution miracles up the sleeves. May be birth control miracles in the next ten years may save us. Right now the whole world seems bored with Family Planning. Can the world afford the luxury of such boredom ?
The word “Population Growth” has its origin from the latin words ‘Populus’ meaning people. According to ecological term; “population is group of people of the same species occupying a particular space”.
Population is subdivided further into demes or local population which is group of interbreeding organism in demes; they share a common gene pool. Population density is defined as a number of individual per unit area or per unit volume of environment.
When the size of the individual is uniform the density is expressed in terms of number of individuals. In case of mixed population it is expressed in biomass density.
Population density is also measured as abundance of absolute number of population. Generally, in an area smaller animals are more abundant than larger animals.
Crude density is the density per unit total space. For e.g., in plant species like Cassia torn individuals are found more crowded in shady patches and few in other parts of same area.
Thus, density in the total area would be crude density, whereas the density value for only shady area would be ecological density.
World Human Population Growth Trend
After every 12 years, the world’s population grows 15,000 each hour or 90 million per year. The rate of natural population growth is 0.5% per year in the developed countries and about 2% in a year in the developing nation. India which has 16% of the world’s total population will continue to be holding this position till 2025.
Cities with more than 10 million populations are called mega cities. In 1992 there were 14 and in 2005 there were 24 megacities.
The precisely statistical study of human population is called demography. It takes in account the age and sex ratio of human population. Moreover their size is also considered to make future predictions about population growth.
Affects of Population Growth
i. The rapid growth of population balances the country’s political and administrative apparatus plus it imposes a variety of burdens on the social structure also. Population growth affects the medical, educational, water, housing service and creates problems to the govt.
ii. Over exploitation of land, resources of food and fuel in developing countries results in to making the country more and more poor. It happens due to oversized population.
Causes of Rapidly Growing Populations
Main Factors:
(a) High birth rate, low death rate and more immigrants.
(b) Various racial and economic factors for high birth rate.
Economic Factors:
(a) Poverty
(b) More village and slow rate of urbanization.
(c) Dominance of agriculture and unchanged occupational distribution of populations.
Social Factors:
(a) Lack of education
(b) Joint family system
(c) Universality of marriage
(d) Religious and social superstition which induces people to have more kids.
Measures to Check Population Growth
Social Measures:
(a) Education expansion.
(b) Improvement in women’s conditions.
Economic Measures:
(a) Employment opportunities in urban areas
(b) Equitable distribution of income.
Family Planning Programme (FPP)
It was initiated in 1952 which shed in 1966-67 measures to be taken are as follows:-
1. Promotion of education and employment
2. To remove speculations about family planning measures
3. To extend child health care and nutritional services.
Religion is a very important characteristic of the Indian population and Indian masses are religious par excellence.
Religion is a way of life in India and it affects the social, economic and political structure of society. Different religions followed by different people living in different parts of the country, have created diversity of culture and brought about changes in life style of the masses.
India is the birth place of four major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. The most dominant religion, however, is Hinduism. Hindustan, the land of the Hindus, is one of the names by which India is known.
Hinduism, a religion thousands of years old and whose origin is difficult to trace, evolved out of the varied Indian ways of life, so different and yet in some intangible way unified. The early pre-Vedic Hindu religion got modified in the Vedic period after the middle of the second millennium B.C.
In addition to being the birth place of four major religions of the world, India has embraced other world religions also. For example, Christianity and Islam came to India from other lands. The entry of these two religions in India goes back to almost the first days of their prophets.
Syrian Christians appeared on the West Coast of India in the very first century of the Christian Era. The Arab traders brought Islam to the West Coast of India much before the Muslim conquest of this country. The prosecuted Jews and Zoroastrians (Parsis) found sanctuary on the Indian soil. Sikhism appeared on the religious scene of India only about five centuries ago.
There have been large scale changes in the religious composition of population due to conversions from one faith to another. Spatial pattern of distribution of different religious groups had undergone drastic changes due to large scale migrations as a result of partition of India in 1947.
Before partition, Hindus accounted for 66.5 per cent of the population of the sub-continent and Muslims 23.7 per cent (census 1941). With partition, large number of Muslims migrated from India to Pakistan and Bangladesh and Hindus migrated to India from these countries. Consequently, the proportion of these two religious communities in the total population changed.
The percentage of Hindus rose to 84.1 per cent and that of Muslims fell to 9.8 per cent (census 1951). Since then, the percentage of Hindu population has fallen marginally while that of Muslims has increased considerably.
The percentage of Hindus had fallen from 83.4 per cent in 1961 to 80.5 per cent in 2001 while that of Muslims had increased from 10.7 per cent in 1961 to 13.4 in 2001. However, after making adjustment for Assam and Jammu and Kashmir, where census could not be conducted in 1981 and 1991 respectively, the percentage of the Hindus and Muslims work out at 81.4 and 12.4 respectively in 2001. (See Table 11. 7).
One heartening fact about religious composition of India is that different religious groups have coexisted for the last several centuries even during the troubled times when there have been clashes based on religion. India is the only country in the world where people belonging to different religious faiths are co-existing in peace and harmony.
The Hindus:
As mentioned earlier, the Hindus are the preponderant majority in most of the states and union territories of India. According to 2001 census figures here were 827.6 million Hindus which accounted for 80.5 per cent of the total population of the country.The Hindus of India account for about 12 per cent of the world population ranking below those professing Christianity and about equal with the followers of Islam, but much above other religions. However, the percentage of Hindus to total population of India is decreasing gradually. It came down from 83.4 per cent in 1961 to 80.5 per cent in 2001. This is largely because of comparatively lower growth rate of the Hindus and partly due to conversion of Hindus into other religious faiths.
For example, the unadjusted Hindu population was registered at 20.3 per cent as against 22.7 per cent for all religions in 1991-2001. But as per adjusted figures the growth rate of the Hindus was 20.0 per cent and against 21.5 per cent recorded for all religions during the decade 1991-2001.
The growth rate of the Hindus had been declining consistently since 1971. It was 24.2 per cent in 1971-81, 22.8 per cent in 1981-91 and fell down to 20 per cent in 1991-2001.
The Hindus constitute the majority community in most states and union territories of India. While the Hindus comprised 80.15 per cent of the total population of India in 2001 they were 95.4 percent in Himachal Pradesh, 94.7 per cent in Chhattisgarh, 94.4 per cent in Orissa, 93.5 per cent in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and 91.1 per cent in Madhya Pradesh (Table 11.9).
However, the Hindus are m minority in certain states and union territory of Lakshadweep. They are outnumbered by the Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir and Lakshadweep, by Sikhs in Punjab, by Christians in Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and almost equalled by unspecified religions and persuasions in Arunachal Pradesh (Fig. 11.6). States and Union territories having Hindus less than 10 per cent of their total population are Nagaland (7.7%), Mizoram (3.6%) and Lakshadweep (3.7%).
In terms of absolute figures, Uttar Pradesh, most populous state, has the largest number of 133.98 million Hindus. This is followed by Maharashtra (77.86 million), Bihar (69.08 million), Andhra Pradesh (67.84 million), West Bengal (58.10 million), Madhya Pradesh (55.0 million), Tamil Nadu (54.98 million), Rajasthan (50.15 million), and Karnataka (44.32 million). These nine states together account for about three-fourths of the total Hindu population of India.
The Muslims:
The Muslims constitute the second largest religious community and the largest minority community of India. According to 2001 census figures, the Muslim population numbered 138.19 million which worked out to be 13.4 per cent of the total population of India. The special feature of the Muslim population is that it has shown an overall growth rate of 36 per cent (unadjusted) during 1991- 2001.This percentage of growth rate was arrived at by including the Muslim dominated population of Jammu and Kashmir where census could not be conducted in 1991. If adjusted data is considered, the Muslim growth rate will decline from 32.9 per cent during 1981-91 to 29.3 per cent during 1991-2001.
Even this growth rate is much higher when compared to growth rate of Hindus which declined from 22.8 per cent in 1981-1991 to 20.0 per cent in 1991-2001. Muslims have rejected family planning vociferously on religious ground and higher growth rate of the Muslims is the natural sequel.
There was no census in Assam in 1981 and in Jammu and Kashmir in 1991, but heads were counted in the whole country in 1961, 1971 and 2001. The comparison of the growth rates of Hindus and Muslims during this period makes an interesting study.
The Hindu population that was at 453.3 million in 1971 grew to 827.6 million in 2001 registering a growth rate of 82 per cent. The Muslim population grew from 61.4 million in 1971 to 138.2 million in 2001, thus registering an increase of 125 per cent.
Even after making adjustment for population of Jammu and Kashmir, the growth of the Muslims is the highest as per 2001 census figures. This is a dangerous trend and is likely to disturb the demographic set up of the country. The north-eastern states have registered an exceptionally high growth rate of the Muslim population primarily due to exodus of Bangladesh Muslims into these states.
In terms of absolute figures, Uttar Pradesh (30.74 million), West Bengal (20.24 million), Bihar (13.72 million), Maharashtra (10.27 million), Assam (8.20 million), Kerala (7.86 million), Andhra Pradesh (6.99 million), Jammu and Kashmir (6.79 million), Karnataka (6.46 million) are the major states where Muslim population is mainly concentrated.
These nine states account for over four-fifth of the Muslim population of India. Muslims are in small numbers in other states. Curiously, Uttar Pradesh has the largest number of both Hindus and Muslims. This is justified by the fact that this is the most populous state in India with a total population of over 166 million in 2001.
Entirely different picture emerges when we consider the percentage of the Muslim population to the total population of the respective states/union territories. Lakshadweep had the highest percentage of 95.5 per cent Muslims although; this group of Islands had only 57,903 Muslims in 2001.
Among the states, Jammu and Kashmir had the highest percentage of 67 per cent Muslims. The highest concentration of Muslims is found in the Kashmir Valley, where in certain areas the Muslims constitute well over 95 per cent of the total population.
Assam has about 31 per cent of its population consisting of Muslims. In West Bengal, the Muslims account for 25.2 per cent of the total population. Murshidabad is the main area of concentration, where Muslims comprise over 55 per cent of the total population.
Kerala has 24.7 per cent of its population comprised by the Muslims, where Malappuram is the main area of concentration. In Uttar Pradesh 18.5 per cent of the total population is Muslim. Most of the Muslims of Uttar Pradesh are concentrated in Rohilkhand and Upper Ganga plain, where the districts of Rampur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Bareilly, Pilibhit, Saharanpur, Muzaffamagar, Meerut and Ghaziabad have fairly high proportion of Muslims. Muslims constitute less than five per cent of the total population in Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
The Christians:
The Christians form the third largest religious community in India. According to 2001 census figures there are about 24.1 million Christians living in India. Christians formed just 1.6 per cent of Indian population in 1941 but it rose to 2.3 per cent in 1951, perhaps due to partition of the subcontinent.In 1971, there were 2.6 per cent Christians in India which fell slightly to 2.5 per cent in 1981 and to 2.3 per cent in 1991 and 2001. The north-eastern states are predominantly inhabited by Christians. For example, Christians constitute 90.0 per cent of the total population in Nagaland, 87.0 per cent in Mizoram. 70.3 per cent in Meghalaya and 34.0 per cent in Manipur.
Christians are in large proportion in Goa and Kerala also, where they form 26.7 and 19.0 per cent of the total population respectively. But speaking in absolute figures, Kerala has the largest number of Christians, amounting to about one-fourth of the total Christian population of India. The total number of Christians living in Kerala is over six million (2001). In Kottayam and Emakulam districts of Kerala, Christians account for over 40 per cent of the total population.
There are several other districts in this state where the Christian population ranges between 15 to 25 per cent. After Kerala the important states with Christian population are Tamil Nadu (3.78 million), Arunachal Pradesh (1.79 million), Meghalaya (1.63 million), Andhra Pradesh (1.18 million), Jharkhand (1.09 million) and Maharashtra (1.05 million).
Varying trends are observed with regard to growth rate of the Christians. It was 36.0 per cent in 1961-71 which declined to 19.2 per cent in 1971-81 and to 17.0 per cent in 1981-91. But it increased to 22.1 per cent in 1991-2001.
The Sikhs:
There were 19.21 million Sikhs in 2001. Sikhs constituted just 1.9 per cent of the total population of India in 1941. Their percentage increased to 1.7 in 1951 as a result of large scale migration of the Sikhs from Pakistan to India following partition of the country in 1947.Thereafter, the percentage of the Sikhs to total population of India has been increasing steadily. They constituted 1.9 per cent of the total population in 2001. Needless to say that the Sikhs are an enterprising race and are scattered in almost all parts of the country.
However, their largest concentration is in Punjab. According to 2001 census figures, 14.59 million Sikhs live in Punjab which is about sixty per cent of the total population of the state. It is estimated that 75.9 per cent of the total Sikhs of the country live in Punjab alone.
This is quite obvious because Sikhism took its roots in the soil of Punjab, where Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikhism preached his teachings. The Sikhs have an absolute majority in the districts of Amritsar, Kapurthala, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Bhatinda, Patiala, Ludhiana, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib and Mansa.
In the neighbouring state of Haryana 1.1 million Sikhs are living according to 2001 census data. This amounts to 5.5 per cent of the total population of the state. Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kamal, Fatehabad and Sirsa are the main districts of Sikh population.
Minor pockets of the Sikh concentration are found in the Tarai region of Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh as well as in Ganganagar, Alwar and Bharatpur districts of Rajasthan. In the union territory of Delhi 5.55 lakh Sikhs are living, which account for 4 per cent of its total population.
The most important factor about the Sikhs is that their rate of growth has declined considerably. It was 32.0 per cent in 1961-71 which came down to 26.2 per cent in 1971-81 and 25.5 per cent in 1981- 91. A steep decline was observed between 1981-91 and 1991-2001. In 1991-2001 their growth rate was 16.9 per cent which was the lowest among all the religious communities.
Buddhists:
India’s 7.95 million Buddhists constitute only 0.8 per cent of the total population of the country. Their growth rate had been changing in each censual decade. In 1961-71 it was only 17.0 per cent and shot up rather out of proportion to 36.0 per cent in 1981-1991. This was perhaps due to large scale conversion of people from other religions to Buddhism. However, it fell to 23.2 per cent in 1991-2001.The Buddhists are largely found in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and the Ladakh District of Jammu and Kashmir. They are also found to a lesser extent in Mizoram, Tripura and Himachal Pradesh.
The concentration of Buddhists in the northern part of India is mainly because it is near here that the Buddhism originated and spread over the Himalayas. In 2001, Maharashtra had the largest number of 5.84 million Buddhists which accounted for 73.5 per cent of the total Buddhist population of India, though it was only 6% of the total population of the state.
The large population of Buddhists in Maharashtra is mostly due to the wholesale conversion of a community of Harijans, following the advice of their leader, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Sikkim’s 152,042 Buddhists, however, give this state the largest proportion of Buddhists in the country, 28.1% of its total population. Other states with reasonably good percentage of Buddhist population are Arunachal Pradesh (13.0 per cent) and Mizoram (7.9 per cent).
The Jains:
4.22 million Jains of India are widely spread in the western parts of the country. Maharashtra (13 lakh), Rajasthan (6.5 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (5.4 lakh), Gujarat (5.2 lakh) and Uttar Pradesh (2 lakh) are important states. Nowhere have they accounted for more than 1.3 per cent of the total population.The Jains have maintained their growth rate above the national growth rate. However, abnormally low growth rate of only 4.0 per cent in 1981-91 appears to an aberration when compared with the other decades.
The Parsis:
As per 2001 census, the Parsis population in the country is 69,601 (33,949 males and 35,652 females) as against their population of 76,382 (37,736 males and 38,646 females) in 1991 census. This is clearly a visible but extremely unfortunate decline of a rich civilization of Zoroastrians and its people.It is apparent from 2001 census results that urgent and drastic interventions are required by all concerned including the government and definitely the Parsi community leaders to ensure survival of Parsi population in India. Fertility improvement innovative initiatives rather than fertility control measures adopted by the community so far are possibly the need of the hour before it reaches a point of no return.
It is expected that this loud and clear message from 2001 census results awakens the country and the Parsi community from the deep slumber it is possibly in and have a beneficial effect for them. About 90 per cent of this community is concentrated in the city of Mumbai and the southern coastal Gujarat, around Surat.
As the worlds population continues to grow exponentially, we are starting to discover some not so expected results of the explosion. According to researchers at Cornell University, rare genetic variations are leading to an increase of complex disease.
Despite the obvious implications of the population explosion, ie water shortages, lack of resources, food shortages and the list starts to sound like some kind of litany you expect from a preacher at sunday school, the earths population continues to rise at an alarming rate.
The world cannot sustain the population explosion.
This recent accelerated growth has created more genetic mutations and rare gene variants, which may play a role in boosting the risks of complex diseases in which genes play a role, say Cornell University researchers in the journal Science.
When a large sample of 10,000 individuals was used in a model of human population growth, rare genetic variants were detected far more frequently than in previous studies. The new model also shows that the vast majority of these rare variants were due to mutations that arose in the past 2,500 years, coinciding with the explosive growth.
The worlds population has almost tripled in the last 60 years. In 1950 the population stood at 2,555,982,611 compared to 2012 which it now stands at 6,991,800,919. The actual maths is that the worlds population has increased by 2.735464978873442 times. That is staggering when you think about it.
The population has tripled since the 1950’s
No comments:
Post a Comment