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Poverty and hunger eradication programs in India:
Development is about removing the obstacles to the things that a person can do in life, such as
illiteracy, ill health, lack of access to resources, or lack of civil and political freedoms. Therefore,
the aim of poverty alleviation schemes should be to improve human lives by expanding the
range of things that a person could be and could do, such as to be healthy and well-nourished,
to be knowledgeable and participate in the life of a community.
Governments approach towards poverty reduction has three dimensions.
1. Growth oriented approach
2. Specific poverty alleviation programs
3. Providing minimum basic amenities
Growth oriented approach refers to rapid industrialization, thrust to manufacturing sector,
transformation of agriculture like Green revolution etc. The basic principle here is trickle down.
However this approach has not been very successful in India in upbringing the poor though they
resulted in high economic growth.
Page 65
Providing minimum basic amenities refers to providing food grains at subsidised rates, education, health, water supply, sanitation which would enhance the living standard of poor people. The programs under this approach are expected to supplement the consumption of the poor, create employment opportunities and bring about improvement in health and education. The second strategy, which is, specific poverty alleviation programs include several programs for employment generation and self employment as well as wage employment. Some of the major policy interventions by Government of India towards poverty alleviation are given below: Rural Poverty-Alleviation Programmes
1. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
2. Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)
3. MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT (MGNREGA)
4. MGNREGA 2.0 (AFTER MIHIR SHAH COMMITTEE)
5. National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) or Aajeevika
6. Indira Awas Yojana (IAY)
7. Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP)
Urban poverty alleviation programmes
1. Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)
2. SWARNA JAYANTI SHAHARI ROZGAR YOJANA (SJSRY)
3. National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM)
4. Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY)
5. Credit Risk Guarantee Fund Trust (CRGFT)
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Page 67
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Key requirements for sustainable poverty reduction Poverty in India Since independence, the country has registered a significant overall growth rate, and there has been a progressive increase in the per capita income, yet there has been a deterioration in the living standards of a large section of the population. The world’s ability to end extreme poverty by 2030–a key element of the Sustainable Development Goals–hinges on India’s ability to make strong and sustained inroads in reducing poverty. According to World Bank report India is home to 26% of the global extreme poor. The poverty challenge in India remains broad, and sometimes contradictory. The country is home to the largest number of poor people in the world, as well as the largest number of people who have recently escaped poverty. Despite an emerging middle class, many of India’s people are still vulnerable to falling back into poverty. India’s performance on key non-monetary indicators of well-being such as child nutrition and improved sanitation facilities lags behind countries at similar stages of development, India’s middle income peers such as China, Vietnam, Brazil and Turkey. Nonetheless, the story of India’s transformation remains one of optimism. Although the full potential of economic growth to reduce poverty is yet to be unleashed, the links between growth and poverty reduction have become stronger than in the previous decade. In addition, the manner in which growth has impacted poverty in urban and rural areas, as well as in different sectors, has changed significantly. Lessons from the past India has made tremendous progress in reducing absolute poverty in the past two decades. Now, to sustain progress and bring about deeper changes for sustainable poverty reduction and shared prosperity in India, following are the key requirements: 1. Accelerating rural poverty reduction: With four out of every five of India’s poor people living in rural areas, progress will need to focus on the rural poor. It’s not just about agricultural growth, which has long been considered the key driver of poverty reduction. In fact, rural India is not predominantly agricultural and shares many of the economic conditions of smaller urban areas. Capitalizing on growing connectivity between rural and urban areas, and between the agriculture, industry and services sectors, has been effective in the past two decades and holds promise for the future. 2. Creating more and better jobs:
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The road out of poverty in India has been built on the performance of the labor market, but also benefited from rising transfers and remittances, and favorable demographics among other factors. Future efforts will need to address job creation in more productive sectors, which has until now been lukewarm and has yielded few salaried jobs that offer stability and security. 3. Focusing on women and Scheduled Tribes: The most worrying trends are the low participation of women in the labor market and the slow progress among scheduled tribes. India’s women have been withdrawing from the labor force since 2005 and less than one-third of working age women are now in the labor force. As a result, India today ranks last among BRICS countries, and close to the bottom in South Asia in female labor force participation. Scheduled Tribes started with the highest poverty rates of all of India’s social groups, and have progressed more slowly than the rest. Women and Scheduled Tribes are at risk of being locked out of India’s growth and prosperity. 4. Creating more “good” locations: Where people live largely shapes their prospects in life. India’s states continue to see large and growing differences in poverty levels and basic opportunities. More and more of India’s poor are concentrated in the poorest states, and even within relatively prosperous states, certain pockets of deprivation persist where people are unable to share in the state’s successes. 5. Improving human development outcomes for the poor: This is central to improving their quality of life and income earning opportunities. The recent past shows that some problems, such as undernutrition and open defecation, are endemic and not only confined to the poor but others too, and have not improved with economic growth. Better health, sanitation and education will not only help raise the productivity of millions, they will also empower the people to meet their aspirations, and provide the country with new drivers of economic growth. Conclusion The Indian economy is changing and so is the relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction. The process of structural transformation of the economy has intensified. As this process continues, the country can be expected to increasingly turn to growth in its
Page 70
urban and non-agricultural economy to drive future poverty reduction. What needs to be remembered is that, elimination of poverty is not merely a question of economic upliftment but is a social and a political issue. It related to the level of the politico-social awareness of people which will help the country to sustain progress and bring about deeper changes. For further reading:
Refer 2nd Chapter – Poverty from Book: Social Problems in India by Ram Ahuja
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POPULATION AND ASSOCIATED ISSUES Introduction Social processes are closely linked with human population. Therefore, it is important for civil services aspirants to study characteristics of population. According to the latest estimates of United Nations Population Fund, the size of India’s population is 1,300 millions (as of mid 2017). Imagine if the size of population of India were 130 million, i.e., one-tenth of the present population, what would be its impact on society. Would we have the same level of poverty and unemployment? Would we have the same level of conflicts and chaos? Would that affect the position of India in the international politics? Are there only good consequences of lower population or there are some harmful consequences too? It is important to assess what are the trends in population growth? What changes are taking place in structure and composition of human population? Knowing all these would help us to estimate various needs of population such as food and health care needs, plan programme strategies and work towards solving the nutrition problems. Before coming on the issue of population it is important to forst get familiarized with different terms associated with it. We begin our journey with demography. What is Demography? The scientific study of human population is termed as ‘Demography’. It focuses attention on three readily observable human phenomena:
a) Changes in population size (growth or decline)
b) The composition of the population
c) The distribution of population in space
Difference between demography and population studies:
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Demography deals with the quantitative study of size and processes of population; population studies deals with complex and qualitative relationships between socio-economic environment and population. In practice there is no separation between the two. Team IASbaba recommends you to read Chapter 2 The Demographic Structure of the Indian Society from INDIAN SOCIETY (Class XII) Focus on following areas:
What is Democratic Transition?
What is a Democratic Cycle?
Theories and concepts in Demography
Different stages of Democratic cycles
Age structure of the Indian Population
This section is already covered in earlier VANs. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SIZE, GROWTH, COMPOSITION AND DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION Size, growth, composition and distribution of population are interrelated. In a territory of a given size population cannot increase indefinitely. Therefore, as we will see later, size of population determines at what rate the population would be growing. Composition of population also affects the rate of growth of population. In turn, rate of growth affects the composition of population. Most of the rapidly growing populations are younger than the declining populations or populations growing at a very slow pace. Rate of growth also affects distribution directly and indirectly. One reason behind this is that all the regions and groups in a country do not grow at the same rate: while some regions and groups may grow at a fast pace others may grow only at a slow pace or even decline, leading to spatial and social class differences in growth rate of population. In most countries, therefore, the governments are not only concerned about overall growth rate of population they also take cognizance of and intervene in population growth differentials. No wonder, in many countries, the social classes are themselves raising concerns about social class differences in fertility, mortality and migration. Population size
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As said earlier, the term size refers to what is the total number of people inhabiting an area. The area may the world as a whole, a nation, a region, a locality or a ward within the locality, or household. The number includes both males and females and all age groups. Growth Rate Growth rate shows percentage change in population of an area, and is expressed on per year basis. It is computed from quinquennial and decennial censuses of population. COMPOSITION OF POPULATION Among various characteristics of population, age and sex composition are the most important ones. Sex composition of population is commonly studied by calculating sex ratio which is defined as the number of females per thousand males. Improvement in sex ratio is often seen as indicative of empowerment of women. Sex ratio = (Number of females/number of males)*1,000 In India population scientists also calculate sex ratio for age group 0-6. This has special significance. Low sex ratio for the age group 0-6 suggests that either there is practice of female feticide or there is neglect of female babies due to which they have higher mortality than males. Percentage of young, aged less than 15 years, and percentage of old population, aged 60 and more, are of common interest to population scientists. Increase in percentage of population aged 60 and more leads to aging of population and it results mainly from declining fertility. Ratio of population of old to population of young, multiplied by 100 or 1,000 is called dependency ratio. Ratio of population aged 80+ to population 60+ indicates aging among the aged. Dependency ratio is closely related to labor force participation rate which expresses number of workers (including those looking for work) as a ratio of the total population. Dependency ratio = (Population aged 60 years or more/population aged less than 15 years)*100 Labor force participation rate = (Number of workers/total population)*100 Labor force participation rate may be computed separately for males and females and for urban and rural areas. DISTRIBUTION
Distribution is a more general term than composition. It refers to any statistical classification of population according to a given characteristic. The most commonly used types of population
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distribution are urban-rural and spatial distributions of population. They are obtained by calculating percentage of total population living in urban areas and in different geographical regions, respectively. Thus Percent urban = (Urban population/total population)*100 Changes in spatial distribution of population, i.e., percent of population living in different states or regions may be caused by difference in fertility or mortality or the process of migration – movement of people from one state or region to another for education, employment, marriage or other reasons. Population distribution, as defined above, can be compared between different countries/societies as it makes the numbers in any category of study free from the effect of size of total population. Refer Chapter 2 The Demographic Structure of the Indian Society from INDIAN SOCIETY (Class XII) and cover the following areas –
Common concepts and Indicators (Page 14-16)
1. Birth rate
2. Death Rate
3. Growth rate of population
4. Fertility rate
5. Total fertility rate
6. Infant mortality rate
7. Maternal mortality rate
8. Sex ratio
9. Age structure of the population
10. Dependency ratio
Note: Aspirants should cover population trends –
How the overall growth in population has occurred in India?
How the urbanization is affecting the population growth pattern in urban versus rural areas?
Causes of population growth
Effects of population explosion
Population policy
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Cover above areas from – Social Problems in India by Ram Ahuja (Chapter 4) – Population Explosion
Consequences of Over-population in India Overpopulation is one of the hazards & serious problem, which creates a great obstacle in the way of national development. It has direct effect upon the society and development of nation. The overpopulation creates or results into some problem which can be stated as The consequences of overpopulation are as follows : 1) Pressure on food, clothing & housing : A country with fast growing population has to face a serious problem of scarcity of necessary food, minimum clothing & proper housing facilities, which are basic needs of human life. Thus, it affects the life style and results slum areas, starvation etc. 2) Unemployment : The overpopulation aggravates the unemployment & disguised unemployment problem. The vacancy rate is negligible as compared to wants of employment, which ultimately results into low income groups and large families depending upon single earning person (earner). 3) Standard of living : The overpopulation creates or give rise to large families with low income reducing the standard of persons living therein. The slum areas, starvation and frequently epidemics are the results affecting health and standard of persons within such nation. 4) Decrease of forest area : The basic made of the growing population is of residence and shelter. To construct houses and place of shelter, man is greatly cutting and reducing forest to make a place to live. 5) Environmental pollution : Over populated passion creates a large affect on the environment by exhausting a large proportion of waste. On the other hand reducing forest which results the growth of pollution. 6) Education : The low income of large family dose not afford to provide education to their children. Which results into creating a problem of illiteracy and again none awareness among the class.
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7) Energy crisis : Population explosion accompanied with rapid industrialization and urbanization has led to greater demand for already deficient energy (fuel wood, fossil fuel and electricity). 8) Hygienic condition : More people in a small area breed unhygienic condition which has ill effects on human health. 9) Eco-degradation : Overpopulation leads to eco-degradation by increasing air, water, soil and noise pollution, unhygienic condition, deforestation leading to flood and soil erosion. So rapid human population growth is creating increased pressure on the infrastructure, economy, environment, availability of primary health care and nutrition.
Effects of the rapid population growth in India
Providing employment to growing population: This is so because in developing economies majority of the population is illiterate. The burden of school age population has already shown signs of becoming unbearable. The proportion of children in schools is increasing fast and, vast numbers are still not covered. The absolute number or illiterate persons increases every year. This is only an indication of the wastage of human resources for want of appropriate development opportunities.
Problem of utilisation of manpower: Better educated manpower aspires for occupations of greater prestige, which are opened up by the new development efforts. Because of its capital intensive nature, the ability, of the new economy for employment generation becomes restricted. Simultaneously, it renders many of the old occupations out of day and redundant. As a result, underemployment and unemployment, including unemployment of educated persons, increases. There is thus wastage of even developed human capital.
Over-strained infrastructure: Facilities such as housing, transportation, health care, and education become inadequate. The worst symptoms of congestion in every aspect of living conditions are manifested in the urban areas. In countries such as India, a situation of "over urbanisation" prevails which puts unbearable strain on urban amenities. Overcrowded houses, slums and unsanitary localities, traffic congestion and crowded hospitals have become common features in the developing countries.
Pressure on land and other renewable natural resources: Common properties such as forest and water are over-exploited. This results in deforestation and desertification with permanent damage to the renewable resources.
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Increased cost of production: Human ingenuity and technological advancement makes it possible to increase production of goods and services. But, it must be kept in mind that, the cost of production of the basic necessities of life, such as food, increases when the population is growing fast and worse lands are brought into cultivation with costly irrigation etc.
Inequitable distribution of income: Both at the international and national levels income disparities increase. The increase in gross national product (GNP) is greatly reduced in per capita terms on account of the rapidly growing population. In the face of a rapidly growing population, the major concern of a developing country tends to be focused more on economic growth as such. Considerations of unequal distribution of income are pushed to background. So inequalities within the country tend to widen further.
The rapid population growth in many third world countries and persistence of poverty has given rise to the view of over-population possibility. There is, therefore, a major move throughout the world to bring down the growth rate of population. Development experience of recent years shows that there is a long run trend towards slow growth of population in a country. This is secured by balance between birth and death rates. Before the commencement of modern economic development, countries were in the first stage of demographic transition. At that time countries had slow population growth because of a balance between high birth and death rates. But, as a result of economic development, developed countries have again attained slow growth in their population. Birth and death rates in these have become quite low. Such features have been noticed during the third stage of demographic transition. However, the balance between birth and death rates is upset during the second phase of demographic transition because of the death rates declining faster than the birth rates. The present day developed countries faced the problem of explosive increase in population which has been put under the second phase of demographic transition. It happened more easily because of congenial circumstances such as vast sparsely inhabited areas existing in those times. But today's developing countries are experiencing a much faster growth in their population under conditions different than those faced by the developed countries. Thus they are faced with huge problems of imparting education, employment, urban development and environmental degradation. The need to tackle these problems has led to the necessity a clearer understanding of the relationship between population and development.
The major problem faced by the developing countries is to bring down their birth rates, i.e. fertility. Therefore, understanding of the relationship between development and fertility becomes very significant. There are experts who think that unless fertility is first restricted,
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sustained economic development is not possible. At the other extreme there are others who assume that fertility is dependent upon economic development. This means that we should concentrate our efforts on development planning, which would, in turn, reduce fertility. Thus, it seems that the nature of the relationship between fertility and development is reciprocal. As the exact nature of this relationship is yet to be fully established, the proper course for a developing country would be to follow integrated policies in regard to both population and development.
For further reading, refer: Population challenges and Development Goals (by Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations) - http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/pop_challenges/Population_Challenges.pdf
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Five Surprising Trends In India's Population Growth In The Coming Decades
The United Nations released the 2017 Revision to its World Population Prospects, and the data
has some surprising insights about the way India's population is set to grow in the next few
decades.
1. India will be number one in seven years
Within the next seven years, India will overtake China to become the world's most populous
country. In just a year or two after that, once China's population has hit around 1441.5 million
people, its population will start to decline for the first time ever.
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India, meanwhile, will continue to grow until 2061 or so and only start to decline when its
population has gone well past 1678.7 million people, when it will be the most populous country
the world has ever seen.
2. Young, but not for long
By that point, we will be a significantly greyer country; India's median age will have crossed 40
by the time its population finally starts declining. The median age today is under 27 years.
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3. The beginning of the end of the demographic dividend
By 2040 or so, India's demographic dividend will be conclusively over. Being a relatively young
country, India has a low dependency ratio -- the ratio of children and the elderly to the working
age population. Once fertility began to slow down, the dependency ratio began to fall from the
1970s and the share of the working population in the total population grew, becoming a huge
potential strength for India. But as the population greys, India's dependency ratio will rise
again, and that change becomes evident by 2040 or so. So if India wants to use its global
competitive advantage in having a large working age population, it has around 20 years to do
this.
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4. Moms are younger, not older
Perhaps the most significant demographic change is the falling number of children every family
in India is having -- the total fertility rate is already down to 2.3 children for every woman, and
is expected to reach the replacement fertility rate (the number of children required to simply
replace the existing population without it growing) of 2.1 by 2025.
Most people commonly believe that having fewer children and being better educated means
that women are having their children later than ever, and hence the mean age at child-bearing
should be falling in India. However what's actually happening is the opposite. The age at which
a woman has her first child is indeed going up. But women are having fewer children not so
much by having them later, but by still having them relatively early, and then stopping having
them -- no more having your fifth and sixth child well into your 40s for Indian women. So,
counter-intuitively, the mean age at childbirth -- the average age at which a woman has all of
her children -- is actually falling in India.
Poverty and hunger eradication programs in India:
Development is about removing the obstacles to the things that a person can do in life, such as
illiteracy, ill health, lack of access to resources, or lack of civil and political freedoms. Therefore,
the aim of poverty alleviation schemes should be to improve human lives by expanding the
range of things that a person could be and could do, such as to be healthy and well-nourished,
to be knowledgeable and participate in the life of a community.
Governments approach towards poverty reduction has three dimensions.
1. Growth oriented approach
2. Specific poverty alleviation programs
3. Providing minimum basic amenities
Growth oriented approach refers to rapid industrialization, thrust to manufacturing sector,
transformation of agriculture like Green revolution etc. The basic principle here is trickle down.
However this approach has not been very successful in India in upbringing the poor though they
resulted in high economic growth.
Page 65
Providing minimum basic amenities refers to providing food grains at subsidised rates, education, health, water supply, sanitation which would enhance the living standard of poor people. The programs under this approach are expected to supplement the consumption of the poor, create employment opportunities and bring about improvement in health and education. The second strategy, which is, specific poverty alleviation programs include several programs for employment generation and self employment as well as wage employment. Some of the major policy interventions by Government of India towards poverty alleviation are given below: Rural Poverty-Alleviation Programmes
1. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
2. Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)
3. MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT (MGNREGA)
4. MGNREGA 2.0 (AFTER MIHIR SHAH COMMITTEE)
5. National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) or Aajeevika
6. Indira Awas Yojana (IAY)
7. Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP)
Urban poverty alleviation programmes
1. Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)
2. SWARNA JAYANTI SHAHARI ROZGAR YOJANA (SJSRY)
3. National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM)
4. Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY)
5. Credit Risk Guarantee Fund Trust (CRGFT)
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Page 67
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Key requirements for sustainable poverty reduction Poverty in India Since independence, the country has registered a significant overall growth rate, and there has been a progressive increase in the per capita income, yet there has been a deterioration in the living standards of a large section of the population. The world’s ability to end extreme poverty by 2030–a key element of the Sustainable Development Goals–hinges on India’s ability to make strong and sustained inroads in reducing poverty. According to World Bank report India is home to 26% of the global extreme poor. The poverty challenge in India remains broad, and sometimes contradictory. The country is home to the largest number of poor people in the world, as well as the largest number of people who have recently escaped poverty. Despite an emerging middle class, many of India’s people are still vulnerable to falling back into poverty. India’s performance on key non-monetary indicators of well-being such as child nutrition and improved sanitation facilities lags behind countries at similar stages of development, India’s middle income peers such as China, Vietnam, Brazil and Turkey. Nonetheless, the story of India’s transformation remains one of optimism. Although the full potential of economic growth to reduce poverty is yet to be unleashed, the links between growth and poverty reduction have become stronger than in the previous decade. In addition, the manner in which growth has impacted poverty in urban and rural areas, as well as in different sectors, has changed significantly. Lessons from the past India has made tremendous progress in reducing absolute poverty in the past two decades. Now, to sustain progress and bring about deeper changes for sustainable poverty reduction and shared prosperity in India, following are the key requirements: 1. Accelerating rural poverty reduction: With four out of every five of India’s poor people living in rural areas, progress will need to focus on the rural poor. It’s not just about agricultural growth, which has long been considered the key driver of poverty reduction. In fact, rural India is not predominantly agricultural and shares many of the economic conditions of smaller urban areas. Capitalizing on growing connectivity between rural and urban areas, and between the agriculture, industry and services sectors, has been effective in the past two decades and holds promise for the future. 2. Creating more and better jobs:
Page 69
The road out of poverty in India has been built on the performance of the labor market, but also benefited from rising transfers and remittances, and favorable demographics among other factors. Future efforts will need to address job creation in more productive sectors, which has until now been lukewarm and has yielded few salaried jobs that offer stability and security. 3. Focusing on women and Scheduled Tribes: The most worrying trends are the low participation of women in the labor market and the slow progress among scheduled tribes. India’s women have been withdrawing from the labor force since 2005 and less than one-third of working age women are now in the labor force. As a result, India today ranks last among BRICS countries, and close to the bottom in South Asia in female labor force participation. Scheduled Tribes started with the highest poverty rates of all of India’s social groups, and have progressed more slowly than the rest. Women and Scheduled Tribes are at risk of being locked out of India’s growth and prosperity. 4. Creating more “good” locations: Where people live largely shapes their prospects in life. India’s states continue to see large and growing differences in poverty levels and basic opportunities. More and more of India’s poor are concentrated in the poorest states, and even within relatively prosperous states, certain pockets of deprivation persist where people are unable to share in the state’s successes. 5. Improving human development outcomes for the poor: This is central to improving their quality of life and income earning opportunities. The recent past shows that some problems, such as undernutrition and open defecation, are endemic and not only confined to the poor but others too, and have not improved with economic growth. Better health, sanitation and education will not only help raise the productivity of millions, they will also empower the people to meet their aspirations, and provide the country with new drivers of economic growth. Conclusion The Indian economy is changing and so is the relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction. The process of structural transformation of the economy has intensified. As this process continues, the country can be expected to increasingly turn to growth in its
Page 70
urban and non-agricultural economy to drive future poverty reduction. What needs to be remembered is that, elimination of poverty is not merely a question of economic upliftment but is a social and a political issue. It related to the level of the politico-social awareness of people which will help the country to sustain progress and bring about deeper changes. For further reading:
Refer 2nd Chapter – Poverty from Book: Social Problems in India by Ram Ahuja
Page 71
POPULATION AND ASSOCIATED ISSUES Introduction Social processes are closely linked with human population. Therefore, it is important for civil services aspirants to study characteristics of population. According to the latest estimates of United Nations Population Fund, the size of India’s population is 1,300 millions (as of mid 2017). Imagine if the size of population of India were 130 million, i.e., one-tenth of the present population, what would be its impact on society. Would we have the same level of poverty and unemployment? Would we have the same level of conflicts and chaos? Would that affect the position of India in the international politics? Are there only good consequences of lower population or there are some harmful consequences too? It is important to assess what are the trends in population growth? What changes are taking place in structure and composition of human population? Knowing all these would help us to estimate various needs of population such as food and health care needs, plan programme strategies and work towards solving the nutrition problems. Before coming on the issue of population it is important to forst get familiarized with different terms associated with it. We begin our journey with demography. What is Demography? The scientific study of human population is termed as ‘Demography’. It focuses attention on three readily observable human phenomena:
a) Changes in population size (growth or decline)
b) The composition of the population
c) The distribution of population in space
Difference between demography and population studies:
Page 72
Demography deals with the quantitative study of size and processes of population; population studies deals with complex and qualitative relationships between socio-economic environment and population. In practice there is no separation between the two. Team IASbaba recommends you to read Chapter 2 The Demographic Structure of the Indian Society from INDIAN SOCIETY (Class XII) Focus on following areas:
What is Democratic Transition?
What is a Democratic Cycle?
Theories and concepts in Demography
Different stages of Democratic cycles
Age structure of the Indian Population
This section is already covered in earlier VANs. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SIZE, GROWTH, COMPOSITION AND DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION Size, growth, composition and distribution of population are interrelated. In a territory of a given size population cannot increase indefinitely. Therefore, as we will see later, size of population determines at what rate the population would be growing. Composition of population also affects the rate of growth of population. In turn, rate of growth affects the composition of population. Most of the rapidly growing populations are younger than the declining populations or populations growing at a very slow pace. Rate of growth also affects distribution directly and indirectly. One reason behind this is that all the regions and groups in a country do not grow at the same rate: while some regions and groups may grow at a fast pace others may grow only at a slow pace or even decline, leading to spatial and social class differences in growth rate of population. In most countries, therefore, the governments are not only concerned about overall growth rate of population they also take cognizance of and intervene in population growth differentials. No wonder, in many countries, the social classes are themselves raising concerns about social class differences in fertility, mortality and migration. Population size
Page 73
As said earlier, the term size refers to what is the total number of people inhabiting an area. The area may the world as a whole, a nation, a region, a locality or a ward within the locality, or household. The number includes both males and females and all age groups. Growth Rate Growth rate shows percentage change in population of an area, and is expressed on per year basis. It is computed from quinquennial and decennial censuses of population. COMPOSITION OF POPULATION Among various characteristics of population, age and sex composition are the most important ones. Sex composition of population is commonly studied by calculating sex ratio which is defined as the number of females per thousand males. Improvement in sex ratio is often seen as indicative of empowerment of women. Sex ratio = (Number of females/number of males)*1,000 In India population scientists also calculate sex ratio for age group 0-6. This has special significance. Low sex ratio for the age group 0-6 suggests that either there is practice of female feticide or there is neglect of female babies due to which they have higher mortality than males. Percentage of young, aged less than 15 years, and percentage of old population, aged 60 and more, are of common interest to population scientists. Increase in percentage of population aged 60 and more leads to aging of population and it results mainly from declining fertility. Ratio of population of old to population of young, multiplied by 100 or 1,000 is called dependency ratio. Ratio of population aged 80+ to population 60+ indicates aging among the aged. Dependency ratio is closely related to labor force participation rate which expresses number of workers (including those looking for work) as a ratio of the total population. Dependency ratio = (Population aged 60 years or more/population aged less than 15 years)*100 Labor force participation rate = (Number of workers/total population)*100 Labor force participation rate may be computed separately for males and females and for urban and rural areas. DISTRIBUTION
Distribution is a more general term than composition. It refers to any statistical classification of population according to a given characteristic. The most commonly used types of population
Page 74
distribution are urban-rural and spatial distributions of population. They are obtained by calculating percentage of total population living in urban areas and in different geographical regions, respectively. Thus Percent urban = (Urban population/total population)*100 Changes in spatial distribution of population, i.e., percent of population living in different states or regions may be caused by difference in fertility or mortality or the process of migration – movement of people from one state or region to another for education, employment, marriage or other reasons. Population distribution, as defined above, can be compared between different countries/societies as it makes the numbers in any category of study free from the effect of size of total population. Refer Chapter 2 The Demographic Structure of the Indian Society from INDIAN SOCIETY (Class XII) and cover the following areas –
Common concepts and Indicators (Page 14-16)
1. Birth rate
2. Death Rate
3. Growth rate of population
4. Fertility rate
5. Total fertility rate
6. Infant mortality rate
7. Maternal mortality rate
8. Sex ratio
9. Age structure of the population
10. Dependency ratio
Note: Aspirants should cover population trends –
How the overall growth in population has occurred in India?
How the urbanization is affecting the population growth pattern in urban versus rural areas?
Causes of population growth
Effects of population explosion
Population policy
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Cover above areas from – Social Problems in India by Ram Ahuja (Chapter 4) – Population Explosion
Consequences of Over-population in India Overpopulation is one of the hazards & serious problem, which creates a great obstacle in the way of national development. It has direct effect upon the society and development of nation. The overpopulation creates or results into some problem which can be stated as The consequences of overpopulation are as follows : 1) Pressure on food, clothing & housing : A country with fast growing population has to face a serious problem of scarcity of necessary food, minimum clothing & proper housing facilities, which are basic needs of human life. Thus, it affects the life style and results slum areas, starvation etc. 2) Unemployment : The overpopulation aggravates the unemployment & disguised unemployment problem. The vacancy rate is negligible as compared to wants of employment, which ultimately results into low income groups and large families depending upon single earning person (earner). 3) Standard of living : The overpopulation creates or give rise to large families with low income reducing the standard of persons living therein. The slum areas, starvation and frequently epidemics are the results affecting health and standard of persons within such nation. 4) Decrease of forest area : The basic made of the growing population is of residence and shelter. To construct houses and place of shelter, man is greatly cutting and reducing forest to make a place to live. 5) Environmental pollution : Over populated passion creates a large affect on the environment by exhausting a large proportion of waste. On the other hand reducing forest which results the growth of pollution. 6) Education : The low income of large family dose not afford to provide education to their children. Which results into creating a problem of illiteracy and again none awareness among the class.
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7) Energy crisis : Population explosion accompanied with rapid industrialization and urbanization has led to greater demand for already deficient energy (fuel wood, fossil fuel and electricity). 8) Hygienic condition : More people in a small area breed unhygienic condition which has ill effects on human health. 9) Eco-degradation : Overpopulation leads to eco-degradation by increasing air, water, soil and noise pollution, unhygienic condition, deforestation leading to flood and soil erosion. So rapid human population growth is creating increased pressure on the infrastructure, economy, environment, availability of primary health care and nutrition.
Effects of the rapid population growth in India
Providing employment to growing population: This is so because in developing economies majority of the population is illiterate. The burden of school age population has already shown signs of becoming unbearable. The proportion of children in schools is increasing fast and, vast numbers are still not covered. The absolute number or illiterate persons increases every year. This is only an indication of the wastage of human resources for want of appropriate development opportunities.
Problem of utilisation of manpower: Better educated manpower aspires for occupations of greater prestige, which are opened up by the new development efforts. Because of its capital intensive nature, the ability, of the new economy for employment generation becomes restricted. Simultaneously, it renders many of the old occupations out of day and redundant. As a result, underemployment and unemployment, including unemployment of educated persons, increases. There is thus wastage of even developed human capital.
Over-strained infrastructure: Facilities such as housing, transportation, health care, and education become inadequate. The worst symptoms of congestion in every aspect of living conditions are manifested in the urban areas. In countries such as India, a situation of "over urbanisation" prevails which puts unbearable strain on urban amenities. Overcrowded houses, slums and unsanitary localities, traffic congestion and crowded hospitals have become common features in the developing countries.
Pressure on land and other renewable natural resources: Common properties such as forest and water are over-exploited. This results in deforestation and desertification with permanent damage to the renewable resources.
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Increased cost of production: Human ingenuity and technological advancement makes it possible to increase production of goods and services. But, it must be kept in mind that, the cost of production of the basic necessities of life, such as food, increases when the population is growing fast and worse lands are brought into cultivation with costly irrigation etc.
Inequitable distribution of income: Both at the international and national levels income disparities increase. The increase in gross national product (GNP) is greatly reduced in per capita terms on account of the rapidly growing population. In the face of a rapidly growing population, the major concern of a developing country tends to be focused more on economic growth as such. Considerations of unequal distribution of income are pushed to background. So inequalities within the country tend to widen further.
The rapid population growth in many third world countries and persistence of poverty has given rise to the view of over-population possibility. There is, therefore, a major move throughout the world to bring down the growth rate of population. Development experience of recent years shows that there is a long run trend towards slow growth of population in a country. This is secured by balance between birth and death rates. Before the commencement of modern economic development, countries were in the first stage of demographic transition. At that time countries had slow population growth because of a balance between high birth and death rates. But, as a result of economic development, developed countries have again attained slow growth in their population. Birth and death rates in these have become quite low. Such features have been noticed during the third stage of demographic transition. However, the balance between birth and death rates is upset during the second phase of demographic transition because of the death rates declining faster than the birth rates. The present day developed countries faced the problem of explosive increase in population which has been put under the second phase of demographic transition. It happened more easily because of congenial circumstances such as vast sparsely inhabited areas existing in those times. But today's developing countries are experiencing a much faster growth in their population under conditions different than those faced by the developed countries. Thus they are faced with huge problems of imparting education, employment, urban development and environmental degradation. The need to tackle these problems has led to the necessity a clearer understanding of the relationship between population and development.
The major problem faced by the developing countries is to bring down their birth rates, i.e. fertility. Therefore, understanding of the relationship between development and fertility becomes very significant. There are experts who think that unless fertility is first restricted,
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sustained economic development is not possible. At the other extreme there are others who assume that fertility is dependent upon economic development. This means that we should concentrate our efforts on development planning, which would, in turn, reduce fertility. Thus, it seems that the nature of the relationship between fertility and development is reciprocal. As the exact nature of this relationship is yet to be fully established, the proper course for a developing country would be to follow integrated policies in regard to both population and development.
For further reading, refer: Population challenges and Development Goals (by Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations) - http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/pop_challenges/Population_Challenges.pdf
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Five Surprising Trends In India's Population Growth In The Coming Decades
The United Nations released the 2017 Revision to its World Population Prospects, and the data
has some surprising insights about the way India's population is set to grow in the next few
decades.
1. India will be number one in seven years
Within the next seven years, India will overtake China to become the world's most populous
country. In just a year or two after that, once China's population has hit around 1441.5 million
people, its population will start to decline for the first time ever.
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India, meanwhile, will continue to grow until 2061 or so and only start to decline when its
population has gone well past 1678.7 million people, when it will be the most populous country
the world has ever seen.
2. Young, but not for long
By that point, we will be a significantly greyer country; India's median age will have crossed 40
by the time its population finally starts declining. The median age today is under 27 years.
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3. The beginning of the end of the demographic dividend
By 2040 or so, India's demographic dividend will be conclusively over. Being a relatively young
country, India has a low dependency ratio -- the ratio of children and the elderly to the working
age population. Once fertility began to slow down, the dependency ratio began to fall from the
1970s and the share of the working population in the total population grew, becoming a huge
potential strength for India. But as the population greys, India's dependency ratio will rise
again, and that change becomes evident by 2040 or so. So if India wants to use its global
competitive advantage in having a large working age population, it has around 20 years to do
this.
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4. Moms are younger, not older
Perhaps the most significant demographic change is the falling number of children every family
in India is having -- the total fertility rate is already down to 2.3 children for every woman, and
is expected to reach the replacement fertility rate (the number of children required to simply
replace the existing population without it growing) of 2.1 by 2025.
Most people commonly believe that having fewer children and being better educated means
that women are having their children later than ever, and hence the mean age at child-bearing
should be falling in India. However what's actually happening is the opposite. The age at which
a woman has her first child is indeed going up. But women are having fewer children not so
much by having them later, but by still having them relatively early, and then stopping having
them -- no more having your fifth and sixth child well into your 40s for Indian women. So,
counter-intuitively, the mean age at childbirth -- the average age at which a woman has all of
her children -- is actually falling in India.
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