India, with a population of 1.37 million, is expected to surpass China’s population by 2025, to become the most populated country in the world, according to UN reports.
Imbalance Between People And Resources
India is expected to add another 273 million to the world population.
With the birth of every new person, the amount of carbon dioxide released by every human being also rises. This carbon footprint is observed to contribute to the decay of our planet slowly.
With the exponential growth of population, the figures pose a threat to India more than any other country. India, with only 2 per cent land, accommodates 16% of the world’s population. Illiteracy, poverty, lack of family planning and resources continue to dominate the country and hinder its development.
Mitigating the crisis requires a shift of lens from ‘population control’ to population development’ to maintain a sustainable balance between resources available and people.
Understanding the negative relationship between population explosion and the diminishing resources, the government has rolled out several plans and measures to control the population and raise awareness.
TAXAB And Its Initiatives
TAXAB, The Taxpayers Association Of Bharat has been actively working towards suggesting population control measures through several initiatives; one of them is ‘Bharat4Population Law’.
Launched in 2017, ‘Bharat4Population Law’, endorses a push to control the rapidly increasing population of India.
Speaking to The Logical Indian, Manu Gaur, President of TAXAB, said: “If we look at the census of 2011, there are 34 crores married women in our country, of which 18 crores are married and have 2 or less than two children, while the remaining 16 women have more than three children.”
To generate consciousness among parents, TAXAB has drafted a ‘Responsible Parenthood Act’ targetting the youth of reproductive age. It suggests access to government subsidies and benefits to those with two children and not more. It focuses on smaller families for the benefit of the family members and the nation.
“How can you expect people to abide by the policies made by the government when people do not think about their own family and plan wisely?” Gaur said.
Gaur also said that the government had spent Rs 20 lakh crores on family planning programmes since 1974, which is equivalent to the annual revenue of the Government of India. But all the awareness, contraceptive measures and campaign carried out by the government have not yielded useful results, as 50% of women in the country have more than three children.
Question Of Survival
“Awareness is not effective anymore. Before spreading awareness, it is more important for people to survive. There are three things essential for survival- food, water and air and all these three things are now polluted. In such an environment, there is a selfish motive behind every new birth when we cannot assure their healthy survival,” Gaur said.
“We are constantly motivating the Taxpayers in the country to understand the gravity of the issue as they are the ones who constitute the nation and contribute towards the making and development of the nation,” he added.
Understanding how the rising population adds to a rise in poverty, unemployment, starvation etc. is expected to prompt people to act.
Additionally, the government can further formulate a law on the Uttarakhand assembly model. The assembly passed a bill in June 2019 that disqualifies anyone having more than two children from contesting panchayat polls. The government explained the move as an attempt to promote family planning.
