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Sep052008
1.1 billion and still growing
Recently I was watching an interview of Malcom Speed the then outgoing CEO of ICC .The interviewer was Harsha Bhogle. Harsha asked him how he views the role of BCCI in international cricket. In response he said India being a market of 1.1 billion people and cricket being hugely popular in India , BCCI has an important role to play.
According to a recent World Bank Report out of an estimated population of about 100 crore in 2005, the number of poor people living below $1.25 a day has increased from 42.1 crore in 1981 to 45.6 crore in 2005. This is the biggest challenge facing India .
These are the two sides of India’s burgeoning population . On the one hand MNC ’s look at India’s large population as potential consumers and India’s large young workforce as cheap source of skilled labour. On the other side ,nearly 45 per cent of India is poor which though can provide cheap manual labour is certainly not what marketing teams of MNC’s are looking at .
While comparing India and China a factor which is often cited in favour of India is that in few decades China will experience a demographic shift(it’s population will start to age) due to its successful population control programme while India will still be young.
But is n’t it the time that we start looking at India’s large population as a problem and not as a resource. Do we as a country have the resources to fulfil the needs of our huge population. Can we really eliminate poverty from this country if we continue growing at this rate ?
The views expressed in this post are those of the writer and are not necessarily endorsed by Mutiny.in
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Natarajan
001
8:29 pm
Yes. Its high time we start doing that!
m0j0
002
7:09 am
I still remember how when I was in primary & secondary school in late 80’s to early 90’s the favourite essay and debate topic used to be - India’s booming population: boon or bane? Back then, the obvious ‘correct’ answer for us 8-9 year olds used to be that it’s a bane and we would fill 3 pages with all the problems that besiege an over-sized population.
This logical understanding was somewhat lost after the process of globalisation started. In the wake of economic progress and MNCs getting attracted to India because of its ‘large market’ - large population started being perceived as a boon (or at least not as bad as was previously thought and taught).
The role that both education and government played in 80s and early 90s in sensitizing masses towards the ills of uncontrolled population growth need to resuscitated to stymie the population growth.
Wishful thinking -
Only then will we be able to pass on the benefits of our economic growth to the hitherto deprived sections of the society rather than having it swallowed by the growing population. Then - we can hope to have a more equitable economic & social fabric as well, with lesser people resorting to violence and being preyed upon by politicians because of unemployment, poverty, ignorance, etc.
Reality Check -
The process of education, economic development, social/communal harmony, lower birth rates don’t have a causal relationship but instead they all work in tandem and are mutually re-enforced by each other.
I personally do not see the Indian population growth grinding to a screeching halt mainly because of the still widespread illiteracy, poverty and the inability of democratic India to go the way of communist China and enact a one-child rule.
Rajat
003
9:37 am
@m0j0
I too remember writing essay on India’s population when we were small.
I wonder if school students are still asked to write essay on this topic.
And what do they write ?
Mayank
004
4:13 pm
I think that India’s growing population is like a coin with two opposite faces. It is a boon because it is one of the major reasons because of which India has recorded a decent economic growth since few years. It is a bane because growing population will increase responsibilities which would difficult to fulfill in coming future.
On one hand large population gives large number of educated, skilled people but it also on the other hand increases the number of people living below the poverty line, people who are uneducated and people who do not have access to most basic facilities in daily life.
Population growth is good till it prevents the average age of the country, from shifting towards the higher limit. So in effect the birth rate should be equal to the death rate or more precisely a bit higher than the death rate, but if there is a huge difference in the birth rate and the death rate, as the case is with India, in the long run it will be the most acute problem to be dealt with. And as they say, prevention is better than cure, strong steps should be started to control population as soon as possible.