Population Growth - Boon or Bane to India's growth

Population Growth - Boon or Bane to India's growth

“We all worry about population explosion, but we don't worry about it at the right time.” - Arthur Hoppe.

Whenever we hear the words ‘population’ or ‘population growth’, our mind always throws back replies like ‘it’s a problem’, ‘population explosion’ or ‘it’s [population] huge’. This thought of perceiving population as negative has been systematically drilled into us since childhood.

However, a neutral perspective is needed to analyze this phenomenon of population growth. India has second largest population of the world and surprisingly enough it’s banking on this population for achieving its ambitions. And to a greater surprise, even the entire world is acknowledging this humongous population of India. Population growth is seen as the major cause of under-development nowadays. However, India is looking at its population as the one which will provide it with the so called ‘Demographic Dividend’.

Bane

1. It becomes increasingly difficult to provide basic facilities if population is huge or is increasing at an alarming rate.

2. There are not enough resources to feed such a huge population. This also leads to problem of nutrition as insufficient nutrition leads to widespread issue of malnourishment.

3. Sanitation and health is compromised as providing healthcare to such a huge number of people is difficult. Thus, welfare would be improved if population was smaller or the growth lesser.

4. Due to lack of adequate resources, facilities, opportunities, etc. there is wide spread poverty and misery prevalent.

5. There are many hurdles in managing such a large population which is still increasing. It becomes difficult to keep all happy. And if many are not happy, it may lead to social unrest.

6. This problem in management leads to unplanned development and also aggravates issues of pollution and unsustainable living.

7. Huge population consumes lots of resources, thus leading to scarcity of resources.

8. There are employment issues. The primary sector is overflowing with people and since there is not enough growth and expansion in the manufacturing sector, the excess population is not being absorbed leading to unemployment. Lack of skilled manpower deprives them opportunities in the services sector.

9. Rapid population growth has led to the over exploitation of natural resources and environmental degradation.

10. Increasing population also puts pressure on limited infrastructure.

11. It has negative impact on overall quality of life because it makes people work harder to achieve less.

Boon

1. This population growth of India will provide it with a demographic dividend.

2. The working population is larger in number than the elderly as well as kids. Thus they can take care of these dependents.

3. Decrease in dependency ratio will increase savings. If the savings rise, investments increase and rise in the investments boost productivity and therefore prosperity.

4. Population growth with reduced or reducing growth rate is extremely beneficial as it provides workforce for development of the nation.

5. Population growth is needed to maintain demographic dividend as this current population will age after few decades and they need to be replaced by others.

6. India’s population is termed as young population as between 2020-2050 average age of Indian population will be around 29 years which is the productive age. Thus it can help the economy to grow.

7. India is the largest provider of skilled manpower in the world. By educating all it can help us get educated workforce for many sectors as world economy is set to transform into a knowledge economy. Such educated workforce can lead the World and India towards prosperity.

8. A bigger population means more consumers, more workers to work in factories and thus increased production, thus increase in supply along with demand. India is also one of the largest markets for automobiles, mobile phones etc.

9. India can tap into its vast pool of talents which such huge population provides.

It can turn into boon or bane depending on how we make our move. Apart from managing the current population we must strive to reduce population growth rate to keep it manageable and have a stable population so as to reap dividend as well as utilize resources sustainably. The National Population Policy 2000 has the long-term objective of achieving a stable population by 2045, at a level consistent with the requirements of sustainable economic growth, social development, and environmental protection. Thus, an educated and well managed population can turn into a workforce driving the engines of growth of the Indian economy.