World Population Issue | A Socio-economic Issue | World Population

NEED TO CONTROL WORLD POPULATION 

World Population Issue

Introduction

We can not think of a world or even a country without population. So a society is essentially based on the people living there. The world has got large number of flora and fauna ( plants and animals) but on analysis we find that the people of the warld endowed with supreme brain power and efficiency became able to utilise all the resources of the world including the biodiversity of having the Hora and fauna on own advantage so that people may have better sources of living.

The world has got a definite land area and the natural resources of this world are not unlimited. There are various constraints to produce Unlimited Quantities of goods and services as wanted by the people of this world. So it can be safely said that supply of goods and services in this world is highly limited in comparison to the wants of the people. Further, any person living on this world or earth requires various items of goods and services either to maintain a living or to enhance efficiency to maintain a better standard of living in future. In any society the more the number of persons the more is the requirement of goods and services even to maintain a same standard of living. Again to distribute better opportunities to maintain a better standard of living for the people of the society, more volume of goods and services are essentially required.

World Population Issue

Present world has been facing Various socio-economic problems for having huge concentration of population. Recent Statistical data indicate that present world has got 7.5 billion or 750 crore of people. Moreover, the number of population in the world has been increasing at a very fast rate for having improved medical facilities everywhere. The expected life-time of an average person has reached as high as around 80 years in some developed countries like J apan. Even in India the expected lifetime of an average person has reached as high as around 65 years inspite of the fact that it was around 30 years during the time when India got her independence in the year 1947. Demographers are of the opinion that the world population, if growth rate is not checked, is likely to become double in next 50 years and in the process the world islikely' to face various types of social, economical and political problems. The problems are still more complex for the undeveIOped or developing countries of the Asian and African continents. In some Asian Countries like China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc. population problems are highly acute because of the fact that in all these countries the number of people has been increaSv ing at a rate of around 2% per year and in this rate population is expected to become double within a period of around 35 years.

India has got around 102 crore people on the basis of 2661‘ census and the population may become double by the year 2035 AD if steps are not taken to reduce growth rate of pOpula. tion in the countly. We should not forget that India has got Only 2.4% of the surface area of the world but at present has got around 17% of the world population.

So different world Bodies such as the United Nations is highly willing to take some measures to control the population the world so that a minimum standard of living for the general people of the future can be maintained. It is to be noted that various scientific methods have already been developed to control bi‘th of children . Demographers are of the opinion that it requires a standard knowledge to initiate population planning by a group of persons belonging to any family or society. Thus we fmd that the countries of Asia and Africa where the educational base has not been developed up to a certain standard, have been suffering much for having explosion of pepulation. But the matters require urgent attention from all quarters.

World Population Issue

There are various obstacles to adopt a uniform population policy to control the world pOpulation; Religious superstitions play a role of a barrier in this respect. The Roman Catholic society is against the system of abortion to control population and the Islamic fundamentalist groups of different Islamic countries of the world are found against any type of measure considered as a method to control population. The Hindu Society of India is also not found to understand the reality of population problems.

The situation of population explosion in the world, particularly in some countries of Asia and Africa has caused concern to economists. The people of all these developing or undeveloped countries have been lilving in the vicious circle of poverty only for having, high growth rate of population. The people of all these countries have been earning such a low rate of income that for average people is not possible to make their children efficient through providing education and training. It is, also to be noted that in all these countries major portion of people are either illiterate or uneducated or semi-educated and they know very little about the problems relating to population. So many economists are of the opinion to take high steps to educate people to control population. But it is beyond the capacity for all these poor countries to develop the infrastructure for mass education. Here it is to be noted that all the countries having good educational structure like countries of Europe have got less problems relating to population increase. Moreover, many developed countries of the modern world have been experiencing decrease in population size with the passage of time.

Conclusion

On the basis of above observations, many population planners have advocated to take drastic steps, including enactments, to maintain family size up to a certain level so that, population can not increase in an alarming rate in some undeveloped or developing nations of the Asian and African continents. India has got high need to take drastic steps to reduce birth rate of people to have stability in population size.