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POPULATION AND ASSOCIATED ISSUES

Currently India is one of the most populous country in the world. Such a large population
invariably puts pressure on a country’s limited resources and is also responsible for many socio-
economic problems in the country. Hence it is often seen as a liability, as it can act as a major
hindrance to development and the quality of life of the people. However, population numbers
have their upsides as well, particularly when a large proportion of this population belongs to the
working age category. So, India is also considered a leading nation in the world in terms of
human power due to its young, educated and productive population. They are contributing to
the development of not only our country, but many other countries as well. Therefore, in this
context, population is an asset for the economy, the greatest resource of the country rather than
a liability.

The term ‘demography’ is of Greek origin and is composed of the two words, ‘demos’ (people) and
‘graphein’ (describe), implying the description of people. Hence demography is the science of the
systematic study of population. Two types of demography are:

Formal demography is primarily concerned with the measurement and analysis of the
components of population change. Its focus is on quantitative analysis for which it has a highly
developed mathematical methodology suitable for forecasting population growth and changes in
the composition of population.

Social demography primarily enquires into the wider causes and consequences of population
structures and change. Social demographers believe that social processes and structures
regulate demographic processes; like sociologists, they seek to trace the social reasons that
account for population trends.

Population trends are determined by using Census, sample surveys. In India, censuses began to
be conducted by the British Indian government between 1867-72 (under British Viceroy Lord
Mayo), and regular ten yearly (or decennial) censuses have been conducted since 1881.
Independent India continued the practice, and seven decennial censuses have been conducted
since 1951, the most recent being in 2011. It is conducted under the Office of the Registrar
General & Census Commissioner, India (ORGI) under the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Indian
census is the largest such exercise in the world (China does not conduct regular censuses).

Census: It is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the
members of a given population. The term is used mostly in connection with ‘national population
and door to door censuses’ taken every 10 years.

Survey: The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in India is a unique setup to carry out
surveys on socio-economic, demographic, agricultural and industrial subjects for collecting data
from households and from enterprises located in villages and in the towns. It is a focal agency of
the Govt. of India (under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI)) for
collection of statistical data in the areas which are vital for developmental planning.
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Population Distribution refers to the manner in which people are spaced over the earth’s
surface a population density refers to the number of people living in each unit of area (such as
a square mile).

Density of population is expressed as number of persons per unit area. It helps in getting a
better understanding of the spatial distribution of population in relation to land. Population
density provides a better picture than total population especially when the population is
unevenly distributed. The density of population in India (2011) is 382 persons per sq km. The
eastern region had the highest density of population of 625 persons per square km. However, the
North East had the lowest density at 176 persons per sq km.

Determinants of Population Change

Fertility, mortality and Migration determines changes in the population.

Fertility:
Fertility rate refers to the number of live births per 1000 women in the child-bearing age
group, usually taken to be 15 to 49 years.

Total Fertility Rate: It refers to the total number of live births that a woman would have if she
lived through the reproductive age group and had the average number of babies in each segment
of this age group as determined by the age-specific fertility rates for that area.

Fecundity refers to the physiological capacity to reproduce.

Fertility refers to the actual reproductive performance of an individual or a group. While there
is no direct measurement of fecundity, fertility can be studied from the birth statistics mentioned
above.

Determinants of High Fertility are:

a) Religious Ideologies
b) Universality of the institution of marriage.
c) Early marriage and early child-bearing.
d) Preference for sons ingrained in the Indian culture.
e) Lack of right of self-determination with reference to reproduction.
f) High infant and child mortality rates
g) Economic, social, cultural as well as religious value of children in the Indian society.
h) Absence of adoption of methods of conception control.

Traditional Indian norms also tend to regulate the reproductive behaviour of couples. For
example, breast-feeding is universally practiced in the Indian sub-continent and this has an
inhibiting influence on conception. Certain taboos are also practiced during the postpartum
period (i.e. the period following childbirth), when the couple is expected to abstain from sexual
activity. The practice of going to the parental home for delivery, specially the first one, common
in some parts of the country also ensures abstinence after childbirth leading to postponement of
the next pregnancy. Cohabitation is also prohibited on certain specified days in the month. It is
also common knowledge that a woman would be ridiculed if she continued to bear children after
she becomes a grandmother.

Mortality

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Measurement of Mortality Out of many measures, the three basic measures of mortality are: the
crude death rate, the expectation of life at birth, and the infant mortality rate.

The crude death rate measures the number of deaths that occur within a population over a
specified period of time — typically one year — per thousand people.

Life expectancy
Life expectancy represents the average number of years of life which a cohort of new-born babies
(that is, those born in the same year) may be expected to live if they are subjected to the risks of
death at each year, according to the age-specific mortality rates prevailing in the country at the
time to which the measure refers. This measure is complicated to calculate but easy to
understand.

Infant mortality rate: It measure of human infant deaths in a group younger than one year of age.

The reasons why the IMR remains high are:

• The limitations of poverty, caste, low educational status and poor literacy make it difficult
for millions to access Healthcare.
• Early marriages: Due to prevalence of child marriages, children born to minors are
susceptible to malnutrition. Also, minor girls are dominated by their husbands and in-
laws; they cannot advocate for their rights
• Skewed healthcare access: The private sector hospitals in India mainly cater to the urban
rich while the rural poor have no option but to visit local health centers. Many local health
centers do not have the necessary infrastructure such as beds, wards, drinking water.

Poor Immunization: Immunization is quite a cost-effective way of reducing IMR. Yet, it remains
low in India due to which India has the record number of unvaccinated children in the world.

Since healthcare is a state subject, creating bottlenecks while framing policies and spending the
approved budget, as the latter is done by the centre.

Maternal Mortality Rate: The maternal mortality ratio represents the risk associated with each
pregnancy, i.e. the obstetric risk. Maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or
within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the
pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not
from accidental or incidental causes. It is measured as number of maternal deaths per 100000
live births.

Some of the major reasons for a high MMR are:

During pregnancy, adequate nutrition is not provided and there are inadequate institutional
deliveries. This is resulting in high MMRs

• Socio-economic factors: The prevalence of child marriages is one such reason. The risk of
maternal mortality was found to be the highest for adolescent girls under 15 years of age and
complications in pregnancy and childbirth were higher among adolescent girls aged 10 19
(compared to women aged 20-24) as per the WHO

Patriarchal mindset: It leads to the neglect of women during critical times such as pregnancy
and after child birth as well. The latter is particularly important, as a mother’s health after child
birth is also very important. 18% of the mothers suffer from gastro-intestinal diseases, because

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they lactate with an empty stomach. Further, every third girl in India is suffering from hysterical
symptoms, mainly due to the deficiency of calcium and iron.

• Obstetric causes: As per studies, more than 50% of the maternal death are attributed to
the same. Such factors include haemorrhage, infection, and hypertensive disorders,
ruptured uterus, hepatitis, and anaemia.
• Unplanned pregnancy and hence illegal abortions cause many deaths in the country.
Further, illegal induced abortion causes sepsis related deaths.
• Mass illiteracy: In the absence of literacy, people are not aware about the good health
facilities or the necessity of the same, the government schemes for the same and the
importance of institutional deliveries.

Migration

Migration refers to movement of people from place of origin to place of destination.

Migration can be internal (within the country) or international (between the countries). Internal
migration does not change the size of the population, but influences the distribution of
population within the nation. Thus, migration plays a very significant role in changing the
composition and distribution of population.

Migration may be permanent, temporary or seasonal. It may take place from rural to rural areas,
rural to urban areas, urban to urban areas and urban to rural areas.

1. Push factors:- The place of origin may seem less attractive for reasons like unemployment,
poor living conditions, political turmoil, unpleasant climate, natural disasters, epidemics
and socio-economic backwardness.
2. Pull factors:- The place of destination may seem more attractive than the place of origin for
reasons like better job opportunities and living conditions, peace and stability, security of life
and property and pleasant climate.

Trends in Population Growth

• Africa is the fastest-growing major area. More than half of global population growth
between now and 2050 is expected to occur in Africa, which has the highest rate of
population growth among major areas.
• Asia is projected to be the second largest contributor to future global population growth
followed by Northern America, Latin America and the Caribbean and Oceania, which are
projected to have much smaller increments.
• Most of the increase in world population can be attributed to a short list of countries.
• High Population growth in least developed countries (LDCs)-They are a group of 48
countries designated by the United Nations as such, of which 27 are in Africa.

Globally, population aged 60 or above is the fastest growing: As fertility declines and life
expectancy rises, the proportion of the population above a certain age rises. This phenomenon,
known as population ageing, is occurring throughout the world.

Malthusian theory of population growth

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) postulated that while human population grew in a
geometric progression (i.e., like 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 etc.), the resources (read agricultural base) grew
at an arithmetic progression, and hence the resources would never be sufficient to sustain the
population growth and humanity was doomed to poverty, unless some preventive measures were
taken to check the population growth. He stated that natural calamities were actually nature’s
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way of checking this unsustainable rise in human population. But, many researches rejected
the theory stating that resources do not grow in a modest arithmetic progression, but at a much
higher rate due to technological innovations.

Theory of Demographic Transition

The term was first coined by the American demographer Frank W. Nothstein in the mid
twentieth century, but it has since been elaborated and expanded upon by many others. The
theory suggests that population growth is linked to overall levels of economic development and
that every society follows a typical pattern of development-related population growth. There are
four stages to the classical demographic transition model:

Stage 1: Pre-transition: The first stage is that of low population growth in a society that is
under-developed and technologically backward. Growth rates are low because both the death
rate and the birth rate are very high, so that the difference between the two (or the net growth
rate) is low which is characterized by high birth rates, and high fluctuating death rates.

Stage 2: Early transition: This is a transitional stage of movement from a backward to an

advanced stage. During the early stages of the transition, the death rate begins to fall. As birth
rates remain high, the population starts to grow rapidly. This ‘population explosion’ happens
because death rates are brought down relatively quickly through advanced methods of disease
control, public health, and better nutrition.

Stage 3: Late transition: In this stage, the fertility rate declines and tends to equal the death
rate. Birth rates begin to fall due to various fertility factors such as access to contraception,
increases in wages, urbanization etc. As a result, the rate of population growth decelerates.

Stage 4: Post-transition: Post-transitional societies are characterized by low birth and low
death rates. In fact, birth rates may drop to well below replacement levels. So, population growth
is negligible, leading to a phenomenon of shrinking population .

Demographic dividend:

Demographic dividend is economic growth brought on by a change in the age structure of

a country’s population, usually a result of a fall in fertility and mortality rates.

Demographic dividend occurs when the proportion of working people in the total
population is higher than the dependent population (age groups 0-15 years and 60 years and
above) because this indicates that more people have the potential to be productive and
contribute to growth of the economy. Such shifts typically lead to an increase in the working
population's productivity, boosting per capita income.

Optimum population

A country is said to have an optimum population when the number of people is in balance with
the available resources. Optimum conditions can only be maintained if the exploration of new
resources or the development of other forms of employment keeps pace with increases in
population.

Population composition
Population composition gives the description of population defined by characteristics such as
age and sex, place of residence, ethnic characteristics, tribes, language, religion, marital status,
literacy and education, occupational characteristics, etc.

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Age Composition

Children (generally below 15 years): They are economically unproductive and need to be provided
with food, clothing, education and medical care.

Working Age (15-59 years): They are economically productive and biologically reproductive. They
comprise the working population.

Aged (Above 59 years): They can be economically productive though they and may have retired.
They may be working voluntarily but they are not available for employment through recruitment.

Sex composition

Sex composition is a very significant indicator of the quality of population of a country as a

human resource. In fact, primarily it is understood on the basis of sex ratio. The Sex Ratio
refers to the number of females per 1000 males in a given area at a specified time period. The
Child Sex Ratio is the sex ratio in the age group 0-6 years (child) in a given area at a specified
time period.

Working Population Composition

The population of India according to their economic status is divided into three groups, namely;
main workers, marginal workers and non-workers. Main Worker is a person who works for at
least 183 days in a year. Marginal Worker is a person who works for less than 183 days in a
year.

Problems of over population

1. Depletion of Natural Resources
2. Amplified Climate Change and Global Warming
3. Loss of Biodiversity
4. Depreciation of Fresh Water
5. Lower Life Expectancy and Diminished Quality of Life
6. Emergence of New Pandemics and Epidemics
7. Rise in Unemployment, Crime Rate, and Violence

Problems of under population

1. Under utilization of resources

2. Slow growth of Industry
3. Climatic issues
4. Uneven distribution of population
5. Few tax paying people
6. Under representation in services
7. Shortage of workers

Measures to control population growth in India

1. Provision of education: Contribution of education in bringing down the
birthplace significant. It changes the attitude of a person towards family
marriage and the government must give overriding priority for education.
2. Development of transport and communication: Different means of transport
and communication increases the contact among the people of different areas.

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This will increase their awareness and they can understand importance of
family planning.
3. Development of trade and commerce: This will increase per capita income
and rise in the standard of living of the people this will indirectly control the
growth of population.
4. The govt. has launched a scheme to utilize the services of ASHA to deliver
contraceptives at the doorstep of beneficiaries.
5. Scheme for ASHAs to ensure spacing in births: Under this scheme, services of ASHAs
to be utilised for counselling newly married couples to ensure delay of 2 years in birth
after marriage and couples with 1 child to have spacing of 3 years after the birth of
1stchild.
6. Compensation for sterilisation acceptors has been enhanced for 11 High Focus States
with high TFR.
7. Scheme for provision of pregnancy testing kits at the sub-centres as well as in the
drug kit of the ASHAs for use in the communities to facilitate the early detection and
decision making for the outcome of pregnancy.

Various initiatives have been taken under the National Family Planning Program
providing broad range of services mentioned as follows:

1. New Contraceptive Choices: The current contraceptive basket comprising of

Condoms, combined oral contraceptive pills, emergency contraceptive pills,
Intrauterine contraceptive uterine device (IUCD) and sterilization has been
expanded with inclusion of two new contraceptives- Injectable contraceptive
(Antara programme) and Centchroman (Chhaya)
2. Post-partum Intrauterine contraceptive device(PPIUCD) incentive
scheme under which PPIUCD services are provided post delivery.
3. Compensation scheme for sterilization acceptors which provides compensation
for loss of wages to the beneficiary and also to the service provider and team for
conducting sterilisation.
4. National Family Planning Indemnity Scheme (NFPIS) under which clients are
compensated in the eventualities of death, complication and failure following
sterilization operations.
5. Family Planning Logistics Management Information System (FP-LMIS):
dedicated software has been launched to ensure smooth forecasting, procurement
and distribution of family planning commodities across all the levels of health
facilities.
6. Mission Parivar Vikas: Mission Parivar Vikas has been introduced for
substantially increasing access to contraceptives and family planning services in
seven high

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