Indian Population

The world has a population of 6 billion. As of March 2001, the total population of
India was a little over 1 billion -- 1,027,015,247 to be exact (531,277,078;
female: 495,738,169). Of this number, 157,863,145 are children up to the age
of six years (81,911,041 males and 75,952,104 females). Despite the fact that
India was the first country in the world to have a population policy, not much
has been achieved in terms of population control.
India is facing an intense crisis of resources. There is fierce competition for the
nation's limited natural resources leading to quarrels between states, between
communities and even families. Our land and water resources are being
exploited to the hilt. The exploitation of mineral resources is threatening forests,
nature reserves, and ecology. Seventy percent of the energy resources need to
be imported putting constant pressure on us to export more or face currency
devaluation. Over use of resources is contributing to natural disasters occurring
more frequently and with greater devastation.
For many Indians, life is a big struggle just to put together the bare essentials
for survival, and shortages of resources works most against the poor and
underprivileged. Even as sections of India's middle-class struggle with
scarcities, it is the poor and vulnerable sections of society who suffer most. It is
well known that the biggest curse to the lives of millions of Indians is poverty.
Though the rural poor have always been a deprived lot, their urban counterparts
are not an inch better off. Having migrated to towns and cities in search of
better life, they now survive under the most appalling of living conditions, with
scant regard to the basics of cleanliness and hygiene. Awareness of healthy
living habits is woefully lacking, so that, though the mortality rate has fallen
over the years, epidemics and killer diseases continue to claim lives that could
easily be saved. Infant mortality and deaths related to childbirth are still
disturbingly common all over India, with large sections of the female population
and a fair section of the male yet to receive their first lessons in literacy. With
illiteracy rampant among the impoverished majority of the country, it is not
difficult to understand why the rich easily exploit the poor, and corruption seems
to have become a way of life. Indian life presents a classic example of being
trapped in a vicious circle of poverty, from which there appears to be no escape.
Nevertheless, a close inspection of the nature of these ills and inequalities
reveals a single root cause lying at the core of the great entangled mass of our
national life: viz. Population.
Population is the only non-depleting resource and a parameter of a country's
development. In a country like India where the factors contributing to
population growth far outweigh the factors for development, population is no
longer a resource but a burden to society. India's population policy has been
guided by the perception that a growing population is a serious impediment to
development efforts. At the time, census figures showed a Crude Birth Rate
(CBR) of over 45/1,000 population -- every year; over 45 children were born for
every 1,000 people. Many couples have large families as insurance against
multiple infant and child deaths. The National Population Policy 2000 notes that
only 44 per cent of India's 168 million couples in the reproductive age group use
effective contraception. Reproductive health and basic health infrastructure and
services often do not reach the villages.

When India became independent, population growth was seen as a major

impediment to the country's socio-economic development and population
'control' was seen as integral to the development process. Population growth
was seen as an urgent problem related to economic development with limited
resources. At the same time, family planning would benefit both individual
families as well as women's health. In 1952, a sub-committee appointed by the
Planning Commission asked the government to provide sterilization facilities and
contraceptive advice through existing health services, in order to limit family
size, and also institute studies on population. The Reorganized Family Planning
Programme ended up focusing on programmes for IUD insertion and
sterilization camps. In 1966, the health minister announced annual targets of 6
million IUCD insertions (20/1,000 population in the urban areas and 10/1,000 in
the rural areas) and 1.23 million sterilizations (or 2.5/1,000 population).
Sterilization accounts for more than 75 per cent of total contraception in India,
with female sterilization accounting for almost 95 per cent of all sterilizations. In
1976, the first National Population Policy talked of integrating family planning
with general health care, of maternal and child health, the influence of female
education, employment and age of marriage on family size, the effect of a high
infant mortality rate, and so on. 1977 saw the Policy Statement on the Family
Welfare Programme. The National Health Policy of 1983 emphasized the need
for "securing the small family norm through voluntary efforts and moving
towards the goal of population stabilization". In 1991, the Report of the National
Development Council Committee on Population proposed the formulation of a
National Population Policy with a long-term and holistic view of development,
population growth and environmental protection. The Reproductive and Child
Health Programme, launched with much fanfare in India in 1997, has generally
provided only contraceptive services. NPP 2000's stated goal is to achieve net
replacement levels by 2010, by meeting people 'reproductive and child health
needs'. Following the announcement of a National Population Policy, a number of
states are coming out with their own policies.
The pressing need of the day is to at create ideal conditions for acceptance of
the need for stabilizing the population and how it is an essential element of
human welfare and development. The solution to this lie in spreading of
education and enlightenment, and in the empowerment of women. Birth control
programmes should also be integrated with medical and public health services
to make them popular among the masses.