POPULATION GROWTH – ECONOMY
News: India
as most populous can be more boon than bane
What's in the news?
● By
mid-2023, India is expected to surpass China as the most populous country.
Demographic Bonus to Economic Dividend:
1. Job creation:
● If
India is able to generate suffcient and quality jobs for its bulging working
age population, realization of demographic dividend will become a reality.
2. Education:
● Education,
skills generation and ensuring a healthy lifespan by preventing diseases and
disabilities are also important channels that translate demographic opportunity
into economic gains.
3. Governance:
● Good
governance is another important aspect for reaping demographic dividend as it
helps in creating a healthy environment for increasing effciency and
productivity of the population.
4. Younger population:
● A
relatively younger population of India provides higher support ratios. There is
lesser disease, disability and caring burden.
5. Manufacturing hub:
● India
has the potential to become a worldwide market for both production and
consumption, with lower manufacturing costs due to a relatively cheaper
workforce.
● Available
demographic opportunity has the potential to boost per capita GDP by an
additional 43% by 2061.
6. Economies of scale:
● Farming
and industry have been able to benefit from economies of scale, which means as
the population grows, food output and manufacturing output have been able to
grow even faster than population growth.
Population Stress:
1. Cost to the environment:
● Population
growth exacerbates many of the existing environmental problems.
● There
will be greater threat on natural habitats as a greater population has greater
demand for housing and farmland. This will increase pressure to cut down
forests to make way for farming and housing.
2. Congestion:
● Road
congestion is a major problem across the world.
● With
population growth, the costs of congestion will only increase leading to time
lost, more pollution and lost output.
3. Water shortages:
● A
growing population will put pressure on scarce water supplies.
● Already
up to 40% of the world’s population face water scarcity and the risk of
drought.
4. Problem of unemployment:
● Large
size of population results in large army of labour force. But due to shortage
of capital resources it becomes difficult to provide gainful employment to the
entire working population.
● Disguised
unemployment in rural areas and open unemployment in urban areas are the normal
features of an under developed country like India.
5. Pressure on land:
● Rising
rate of population growth exerts pressure on land.
● On
the one hand, per capita availability of land goes on diminishing and on the
other, the problem of sub-division and fragmentation of holdings goes on
increasing.
6. 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.
7. 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.
WAY FORWARD:
● India’s TFRs have been
reducing substantially across most states.
● However,
population control, grounded in classic economic theories, has been a
double-edged sword. It has both advantages and costs.
● Thus,
the long-term policy requires a
stable population consistent with the requirements of sustainable economic
growth, social development, and environmental protection.