Population and Its Problems Population: The Increasing Numbers and Rising Problems

For most of human history population grew very slowly because death rates were high: famine, epidemics and infant deaths kept removing people almost as fast as they were born. Then in the last two centuries better medical aid, large-scale immunisation, the Green Revolution (which reduced food shortages) and improved nutrition and sanitation caused the death rate to fall sharply. The birth rate, however, stayed high. With deposits unchanged but withdrawals slashed, the human population shot up from around one billion in 1800 to several billion today. This sudden, steep rise is called the population explosion.

Four factors change the size of any population. Births (natality) and immigration (people moving in) add individuals; deaths (mortality) and emigration (people moving out) remove them. The growth rate is the difference between birth rate and death rate. As long as the birth rate is greater than the death rate the population keeps growing. If the death rate ever rises above the birth rate, the population declines. Demographers express these as rates per 1000 people per year so that countries of different sizes can be compared fairly.

India's population has grown rapidly, recorded census by census. Several social factors keep India's birth rate high: widespread illiteracy, early marriage, traditional and religious beliefs, the desire for a male child, poverty and economic dependence on children for work, and a lack of recreation. At the same time better healthcare lowered the death rate. Together these produced a very fast-growing population that places heavy pressure on the country's land, food, water and jobs.

A rapidly rising population strains natural resources and society. It causes poverty, unemployment, food and water shortages, overcrowding and slums, air and water pollution, deforestation and a shortage of health and educational facilities. The cure is to lower the birth rate through family planning: raising the age of marriage, educating people (especially girls), improving the status of women, and using birth-control methods. These include barrier methods, hormonal methods, intra-uterine devices, and permanent surgical sterilisation, namely tubectomy in females and vasectomy in males.