New Delhi
May 11, 2000
Today,
India's population has crossed the one billion mark. This is a serious
matter that is both cause for concern and introspection -- concern over
the impact that a runaway population growth is bound to have on the
nation's economic, natural and other resources; introspection over where
we went wrong and how we can stabilise our population.
In
the century gone by, India’s population has grown from 24 crores to 100
crores, registering a more than four-fold increase. This is more than the
three-fold increase in the world’s population during the same period.
With 2.4 per cent of the world’s landmass, Indians now constitute 16 per
cent of the world’s population. Every year, 15.5 million children are
born in India, making it virtually impossible for Government and society
to ensure that they are not deprived of nutrition, healthcare and
education, the fundamental requirements of any human being.
If
the present growth rate of our population remains unchecked, India will
become the world's most populous country by the middle of this century,
with people clamouring for a share of shrinking natural resources.
Essential requirements like drinking water, shelter and health will be
difficult to meet. Moreover, there is no way that generation of employment
opportunities, creation of physical infrastructure and maintenance of
public services can keep pace with a runaway population growth.
India
is among those countries that were the first to officially adopt
population control policies. Yet, while others have succeeded in
stabilising their population, our experience, barring in some States, has
been far from satisfactory. Obviously, there were flaws in the policies
that we have pursued over the last four decades as well as in their
implementation.
Government
realises that population stabilisation cannot be achieved without
all-round socio-economic development, and definitely not through coercion.
Family welfare by itself is not enough; along with it, Government needs
to, and shall, ensure economic and social welfare. For, lower population
growth has a direct correlation with increased access to primary health
care facilities and a wide variety of contraceptives, education
(especially for the girl child), social empowerment and freedom of choice
for women. This is the experience of States that have been able to check
their population growth.
Bearing
this in mind, and realising the urgency of the need to stabilise our
population, Government has adopted a National Population Policy and set up
a broad-based Population Commission to monitor the implementation of this
policy. Population stabilisation and family welfare should form the
cornerstone of a new national mission that aims at providing a better
quality of life for all citizens of this country. For this mission to
succeed, Government seeks the active participation of voluntary
associations and community-based organisations. Indeed, every Indian
should come forward and join this national effort so that we can turn the
trend in the next decade and move towards sustainable development through
population stabilisation.