Population and associated issues

India is the second most populous country in the world next only to China. On March 1, 2011 the total population of India was at 1.247 billion. This accounted for 17.5% of the world’s total population. In other words, about every sixth person in the world there is an Indian. China, the most populous country of the world, is a step ahead of us as every fifth person in the world there is a Chinese. While India possesses only 2.42% of the world’s total land area, she is required to sustain almost 17.5% of the world’s population.

Two components of population growth are: Natural growth: It is analysed by assessing the crude birth and death rates. Induced growth: It is assessed by the volume of inward and outward movement of people in any given area. There are four phases of population growth in India. The period from 1901-1921 is referred to as a period of stagnant growth of India’s population. The high birth rate was counterbalanced by high death rate. The decades 1921-1951 are referred to as the period of steady population growth. The mortality rate started showing downward trend as a result of improvement in general health and sanitation conditions after 1921.

The density of population is expressed as the number of persons per square kilometre. According to 2011 census, the density of population in India is 382 persons per square kilometre. Over the last 100 years density has increased more than four times.

Density and its variation across states can be accessed by the following table:-

India was the first nation to launched a family planning programme in 1952. Though the birth rate started decreasing, it was accompanied by a sharp decrease in death rate, leading to an overall increase in population.The early concept of population policy covered both mortality and fertility and did not exclusively focus on fertility. There was also a recognition of the need to improve the quality of life of the people by lowering the burden of disease or morbidity, promoting universal primary education and eradicating illiteracy, exploitation and poverty.

In 1976, the first National Population Policy was formulated and tabled in Parliament.

The intent of National Population Policy-NPP-2000 is to eliminate unmet contraceptive needs by providing high quality reproductive healthcare. In particular, the NPP-2000 aims to address flaws in healthcare infrastructure and to achieve a total fertility rate of 2.1 births per woman by 2010. Main objectives of NPP-2000 are:-

• Converge service delivery at village level
• Empowering women for improved health and nutrition needs for family welfare services
• Child health and survival
• Meeting the unmet needs of the under-served population groups
• Use of diverse health care providers
• Collaboration with and commitments from the non-government sector
• Mainstreaming Indian systems of medicine and homeopathy
• Contraceptive technology and research on reproductive and child health (RCH)
• Providing for the older population x. Information education and communication

Population Growth Rate in India has reduced substantially which is evident from the following:-

•       The percentage decadal growth rate of the country has declined significantly from 21.5% for the period 1991-2001 to 17.7% during 2001-2011.
• Total Fertility Rate (TFR) was 3.2 at the time when National Population Policy, 2000 was adopted and the same has declined to 2.3 as per Sample registration Survey (SRS) 2013 conducted by the Registrar General of India.