(i) Population and Poverty:
Poverty and population
very often go hand in hand. In fact, poverty is both the cause and the effect
of rapid growth of population. The mass poverty of our country is due to the
rapid growth of population. It is estimated that about 26% [1999-2000] of the
people of India still live below the poverty line. They are ill fed, ill
clothed and ill housed. Thus, mass poverty is due to rapid growth of
population.
(ii) Unemployment and Under
Employment:
Not only new born
individuals are to be fed and sheltered but they are also to be provided with
jobs. New jobs are to be created for new hands. It is not easy to create jobs.
There is already unemployment coupled with under employment. Every year more
than 5 million people who attain the working age join the group of job seekers.
(iv) Shortage of Food:
The rapidly growing
population in India has led to the problem of shortage of food supply.-In spite
of the fact that more than two-third of its population engaged in agriculture,
people do not get even minimum necessary amount of food.
Even though we have
attained self-sufficiency in food production, due to improper distribution, all
the people do not get sufficient food to sustain their health. As a result one
out of every four is suffering from malnutrition and two out of every four get
only half of the daily required quantum of energising food.
(v) Increased Burden of Social Overheads:
When there is rapid growth
of population in the country, the government is required to provide the minimum
facilities for the people for their comfortable living. Hence it has to
increase educational, housing, sanitation, public health, medical,
transportation, communication and other facilities. This will increase the cost
of the social overheads. Government finds it difficult to find sufficient funds
to meet these “unproductive expenses.”
(vi) Population and Labour Efficiency:
Since an increase in
population reduces per capita income, the standard of living of the people
deteriorates. This affects very badly the health and efficiency of the workers.
The physical and the mental efficiency of the workers naturally come down.
Labour inefficiency reduces productivity and the nation at large loses very
heavily.
(vii) Population and the Standard of Living:
The standard of living
denotes the way in which people live. It reflects the quantity and the quality
of the consumption of the people. Due to the rapid growth of population
standard of living of the people has been adversely affected.
(viii) Population and Pressure on Land:
Overpopulation inevitably
leads to heavy pressure on land. Since land is limited and fixed in supply, an
increase in population can only bring more pressure on it. Hence the new born
people will have to share the land with the existing people. With the exception
of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, in all the other states heavy density of the
population is to be found.
Further, per head
availability of the land for cultivation in the 1911 was 1.1 acres, and this
has declined to 0.3 acres in 1992. On the contrary, the average size of the
agricultural land that each person could get is 2.59 acres in Russia, and 2.68
acres in America.
(ix) Increased Unproductive Consumers:
When there is a rapid
growth of population in a country like India, there will be large proportion of
unproductive consumers. In fact, today about 51 % of the total population of
India is unproductive. Rapid increase in the population contributes to an
increase in the dependency ratio.
(x) Slow Economic Development:
Economic development is
bound to be slower in a country in which the population is growing at a very
fast rate. Absence of savings results in low capital formation. The shortage of
capital has restricted investments and contributed to the slow economic growth
of the country.
(xi) Political Unrest:
Unmanageable population
size may contribute to political instability and unrest. The failure of the
government to provide the basic minimum facilities to the people contributes to
agitation and unrest among the masses.
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