Development and Population Control

Development according to many analysts is the best contraceptive.But if we look at India there seems to be some doubt about the statement.In India planned development and family planning have been going on for several decades.But our population problem has only become more disturbing over the time. The fruits of developments can be seen on the food front where production has gone up to many folds.Life expectancy has increased so has the gross domestic product.Schools and education has touched almost all sections of the society.However population growthe has not slowed down much. This has diluted every improvement in India’s national development.If the population rise had been contained the same economic achievements would have resulted in significant development of people. The gap between GDP and per capita income indicates the adverse effect of a large population on standard of living.Another aspect of development in India is the skewed distribution of the GDP which has denied any effective rise in the living standards of most Indians. Nearly 30% of the people still live below the poverty line and many more on the borderline.The benefits of development have been cornered by a small percentage of people.The existing standard of living is just about maintained so that there is a low death rate but no appreciably high reduction in the birth rate.

Two ways are possible to overcome this problem.Either increase the economic growth rate to atleast three or four times the present population growth rate even while ensuring equitble distribution or reduce the population growth drastically to 1/3 or so of what exists now keeping in mind the distribution aspect.Raising the economic growth rate substantially poses some difficulities. Harnessing our natural resources further will take much effort and discipline. A high growth rate is also bound to cause serious damage to the ecological damage.The other alternative of bringing down population through a vigorous and effective promulagation of family planning may rake up past images of emergency period.It is only through developing human beings through education ,better health facilities that we can have impact on population growth.Mere economic development will not do.It is important for the state to invest in improving the social sectors and provides for development with a human face only then can we have healthy and aware human beings who will have a stake in keeping the size of their families small.