oppn parties India Will Be Most Populous Nation In The World In 2023 But There Is No Need To Be Alarmed

News Snippets

  • Sikh extremists attacked a cinema hall in London that was playing Kangana Ranaut's controversial film 'Emergency'
  • A Delhi court directed the investigating agencies to senstize officers to collect nail clippings, fingernail scrappings or finger swab in order to get DNA profile as direct evidence of sexual attack is often not present and might result in an offender going scot free
  • Uniform Civil Code rules cleared by state cabinet, likely to be implemented in the next 10 days
  • Supreme Court reiterates that there is no point in arresting the accused after the chargesheet has been filed and the investigation is complete
  • Kolkata court sentences Sanjoy Roy, the sole accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case, to life term. West Bengal government and CBI to appeal in HC for the death penalty
  • Supreme Court stays criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi for his remarks against home minister Amit Shah in Jharkhand during the AICC plenary session
  • Government reviews import basket to align it with the policies of the Trump administration
  • NCLT orders liquidation of GoAir airlines
  • Archery - Indian archers bagged 2 silver in Nimes Archery tournament in France
  • Stocks make impressive gain on Monday - Sensex adds 454 points to 77073 and Nifty 141 points to 23344
  • D Gukesh draws with Fabiano Caruana in the Tata Steel chess tournament in the Netherlands
  • Women's U-19 T20 WC - In a stunning game, debutants Nigeria beat New Zealand by 2 runs
  • Rohit Sharma to play under Ajinkye Rahane in Mumbai's Ranji match against J&K
  • Virat Kohli to play in Delhi's last group Ranji trophy match against Saurashtra. This will be his first Ranji match in 12 years
  • The toll in the Rajouri mystery illness case rose to 17 even as the Centre sent a team to study the situation
Calling the case not 'rarest of rare', a court in Kolkata sentenced Sanjay Roy, the only accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case to life in prison until death
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India Will Be Most Populous Nation In The World In 2023 But There Is No Need To Be Alarmed

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2022-07-12 09:04:42

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

India was expected to be the most populous country in the world by 202. But the Population Division of the United Nations (UNPD) has now said that India will overtake China to become so next year, four years earlier than expected. Ordinarily, this should have sent alarm bells ringing and a rush to devise policies for population control. But with all indicators like fertility rates and population growth showing that population in India is likely to plateau and start declining in the near future, there is no need to panic.

Unlike China, India has, barring the Emergency when there was forced sterilization for some time, always used  persuasion and education as the means to control population. It has been extremely successful in bringing the sustained total fertility rate from 6 in 1951 to 2 now (as per the National Family Health Survey-5) which is less than the 2.1 that the UNPD prescribes for attaining population stability. While China had forced the one-child policy on its people and was successful in controlling growth of population, the ill-effects - an ageing population and a skewed gender ratio, among others - of the policy has now forced it to abandon it. As India has reached the replacement level fertility rate, there is no need for special coercive policies to control the growth of population. Persuasion and education, coupled with rising aspirations which induces couples to have only as many children as they can bring up well, will work fine.

Instead, the need for the government is to turn this perceived liability into an asset. India needs to provide the best of healthcare, nutrition and education facilities for its burgeoning population and skill them to make them productive so that they can rise up the value-generation curve. It needs to rapidly develop the country so that these educated and skilled people get jobs and are productive. India is blessed with a young population. It only needs to make them partners in progress by allowing them to be healthy, educated and skilled in a manner in which they can contribute to building the nation.

Picture courtesy: downtoearth.org.in (caption ours)