Overpopulation in India- Causes and effects

A country is said to be over populated when the inhabitants of the country exceeds the rate of availability and production of resources. With a present population of approximately 139 crores , India stands at being the second most populous country in the world after China. The large population of the country exceeds the resources it produces, which in turn doesn’t satisfy the needs of all the people living here. Thus, India can be called an overpopulated nation and over population is a big problem here because of the same said reason.

Being a developing country, India needs a less population to resource ratio so that it can satisfy the needs of all the people here. Increasing the production of resources may be impossible at times as one can increase the food production and other things upto a limit only else the balance will be disrupted., This leaves the only option of controlling the population of the sub-continent. This blog will highlight some of the major causes of the over population and the effects which it has on the people.

Causes of overpopulation

• CHILD MARRIAGE– The age where a person is supposed to be nurtured and grow, he/she is tied in a responsibility of which they have no concrete idea of. There is a reason why the legal age of marriage is said to be at 18 because it gives ample time to a “child” to grow and prepare themselves for many responsibilities. The orthodox beliefs in India have often led to children being married at as low as 10 years of age. When a child themselves becomes a parent. this is more likely to raise the number of population in the country. Not to mention the negative affects of child marriage which often leads to the death of weak mother or the child.

• ILLITERACY AND TABOOS IN THE COUNTRY– India has an illiteracy rate of almost 31%. The lack of knowledge about some major issues like the need of birth control and how to do so, have also led to the rising number of population. Also, since to talk about “sex” openly in India is a taboo, sex education lacks in the people here. They would rather prefer to do it inside the close doors and add to the rising miseries which overpopulation brings than to talk about it and control it.

• RELIGIOUS AND ORTHODOX BELIEFS IN THE COUNTRY- People here consider children to be God’s gift like it happens everywhere else, but they refuse to control the number of children they are producing as they feel that it is God’s wish and who are we humans to go against it”. Also, the Indian belief of having a male who will take their family name forward leads couples to birth many children till they do not get a boy.
• ILLEGAL MIGRATION– Migration of people from Nepal and Bangladesh has also led to the increase in number of population where the condition is such that there is no sufficient food to feed even the natives.
• POVERTY- There involves a paradoxical relation ship between poverty and over population. Poverty is one of the outcomes of over population as the number of feeding mouths keeps on increasing for a person with less amount of money. Whereas some people believe that if they produce more children they will have more earning members which in turn will relieve them of poverty.(This is also one of the reason of over a million child labors in the country). However, they forget to keep in mind the fact that , more the number of people more will be the responsibility to feed the members until they grow old enough to earn . Even after the children grow old enough to earn, they are not able to fetch a good amount of money because they have malnutrition.
• THE WIDENING GAP BETWEEN BIRTH AND DEATH RATES.– Due to improved medical facilities, the life of an average individual has increased lowering the death rates while the birth rates goes on increasing every moment. By decrease in the death rate it doesn’t mean that people must die to control the population, IT IS JUST A STATED FACT.

POVERTY, MALNUTRITION IN CHILDREN, UNEMPLOYMENT due to rising number of people and less opportunities ,global warming, environmental pollution, habitat loss, the sixth mass extinction, intensive farming practices and the consumption of finite natural resources, such as fresh water, arable land and fossil fuels are the consequences of overpopulation which gives a signal that if the population is not controlled then it can become a curse on us.