The horrendous picture of the population explosion of planet Earth, projected recently by the United Nations to reach 8 billion people is a matter of grave concern. According to the UN’s estimate, India would surpass China as the world’s most populous country during 2023.

The global population is likely to go up to about 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050, and 10.4 billion in 2100. In 2022, the two most populous regions were both in Asia ~ Eastern and South-Eastern Asia with 2.3 billion people and Central and Southern Asia with 2.1 billion.

The world population is also increasing with incredible speed, about 100 million a year and it is estimated that mother earth would embrace close to ten billion people by 2050. While population growth in India has assumed the proportion of escape velocity like a rocket, the picture of Pakistan is more dismal.

The number of children per woman is 5.6. The situation prevailing in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and China are also far from satisfactory. According to the UN Commission on Population and Development, India, Pakistan, and China are among five countries that account for half the annual growth of the world’s population. Indonesia and Nigeria are the other two countries. However, it must be admitted that China has launched some commendable family planning programmes and has been able to control population growth to a great extent. It is estimated that China’s population will increase from the present 1336 million to approximately 1500 million in 2025.

India and many other developing countries are lagging far behind so far as the implementation of effective family planning programmes are concerned. Obviously, India’s population will cross China’s within the first quarter of this millennium, if not controlled.

The question arises: how to manage a population of this size? What would be the significance of human rights? USA, Germany, Russia, UK, France, and Japan all have population growth rates ranging from 0.2 to 1 per cent. Thailand has 1.5 per cent. This indicates more developed regions would remain essentially the same at about 1.2 billion, while the developing poor regions are likely to grow from 4.8 to 7.8 billion.

On the other hand, an entire population of Australia is added every year to the atlas of India. Illegal migration from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, etc. has further accentuated the problem. India’s population was 363 million in 1951-52, with estimated food production of 52 million tons. Individual calorie consumption per day was about 1580. During 1985-86, India had a population of 725 million. Food production should have increased to 165 million tons to provide an individual consumption of 2500 calories.

The estimated enhanced food production as envisaged was not achieved. In fact, the green revolution in no way is able to feed the most populous country of the world because of topsoil erosion and other reasons. Food surplus is nothing but an illusion in the face of population growth. For the first time since the green revolution, the food grain output growth has lost the race against population increase.

The developing countries, particularly the economically backward states of the third world are succumbing in a vicious cycle of poverty, population explosion, and environmental degradation.

If the explosion of the population remains uncontrolled and pragmatic strategic actions are not taken immediately, how will India foster its public health programme, manage water resources, universalise primary education, and implement overall development programmes with a holistic approach? What will happen to India’s headway towards industrialization? It is argued that for rapid industrial growth, the developing poor countries need to cross three steps.

The first step includes the population being stabilized when death rates are high. Second, because of the improvement of public health engineering and medical science, the death rate may be low, but the birth rate increases rapidly, so also the entire population. Third, both birth and death rates decline, and the country stabilizes its population, ensuring social security and economic freedom. Unfortunately, it transpires that many poor developing countries including India are not in a position to bring in a conductive environment for reaching the third step. India has remained blindly static in the second step that is repeatedly impeding our development programmes.

The links between health, nutrition, and family planning are strong. The smaller the size of the house, the better overall health, and a reduction in the number of births could be expected. The driving force behind improved maternal and infant health and nutrition may be entirely the small family size. Poor nutrition may be attributed as the major cause of morbidity and death. The urban poor, particularly in the slum areas have larger families.

These people have more children mostly from economic insecurity and due to their lack of or limited access to education, family planning, health, and other social services. Inculcating higher levels of education minimizes the fertility rate. Therefore, family planning programmes would yield better results if they are reinforced with proper educational programmes.

The value of breastfeeding, the use of balanced and uncontaminated food, clean water, and the maintenance of environmental sanitation can only be appreciated by imparting education. Education should be regarded as a powerful weapon to combat increases in fertility rate, poverty, and unemployment.

Illiterate that women are the most vulnerable section of our society. They live in a miserable condition with little or no medical facilities right from their pregnancy and beyond the postnatal period. Living within the constraints of economic problems, they suffer health hazards and often look for extra hands to maintain the family.

The control of the population depends on people’s participation in the family planning programme and spreading basic education meaningfully. Educating women, underprivileged weaker and backward sections of the society would go a long way in lowering the fertility rate and inhibit their distressful plight. It is observed that in Kerala, where the literacy rate is extraordinarily high, there is a simultaneous decline in the population growth rate. Inculcating scientific attitudes among the common masses would also help reduce the fertility rate considerably.

It is deplorable that though the nation is heading towards an irretrievable population crisis, no political party is willing to take the issue seriously. Shall we assume they are inclined to march on with politics comfortably for centuries with the card of poverty? Or is it simply the poverty of politics? It is true that death rates can be controlled by the application of modern medicine or public health initiatives.

But birth rates are not so easily affected. It is a manifestation of a personal choice in response to many social, economic and cultural factors. In his lectures on social opportunities and economic development, Professor Amartya Sen has repeatedly emphasized on the urgent need for women’s functional literacy in India. A shift of gear in meaningful contraceptive application is also necessary. That is, the contraceptive research and its long-term effect should be aimed at men rather than women.

The unprecedented population pressure requires to be controlled to strengthen the existing human resources and to improve lifestyles. This is important because man himself is an endangered species and is under threat of extinction. The human population growth must come to a halt to restore the interdependence and harmony with other biotic living species, in which Homo sapiens is a member and not a master.