POPULATION GROWTH VS DEVELOPMENT

I am going to write in support of the statement ‘population growth positively affects development’. Sounds a bit off beat and I seem to stand out as a crack pot and a fool to have chosen to speak against all the serious and stern arguments that some of my fellow mates will be presenting against my statement, isn’t it? Nevertheless, as the ripe old philosophers have said, work of greatness always attracts strong criticism, so will I be presenting my arguments without fear or favour.

Well, before I present my arguments, I would like to clarify in a few words what development is. Development in simple words means that it is the measure of the living standard of humans. Thus, from the above statement it can be clearly seen that the term ‘development’ is a relative term. Human wants are ever increasing and ever changing.  Some time ago, clothes, house, food was considered as the major requirements along with the economic status for the people to call themselves so called developed. But now the definition has changed. Now the demands of the people have increased and their desires are lofty, yet this want can be channelized towards building a better future and bring about desired positive changes (i.e. development).

What we see if we take our motherland as an example to see how population affects development as well as vice versa. After independence, the Indian government had taken various steps and formulated various policies that has led to the economic, social, health, etc development in India. These developments have in turn given rise to rapid population growth. The percentage of older people have gone down in the population of India and there has been the rise in the percentage of youth and middle aged. 3out of 10 people are under the age of 15yrs according to the census of 2001 and NFHS-2 and NFHS-3. Just as the population has risen so has there been increase in development. The more the people, the more the labour force, the more the employment opportunity.

Not getting it, right? You must be thinking that more the population will lead to job scarcity, then to poverty, then poor economic condition. What if tell you that this economic poverty is a result of the poverty of our thought. We are only being cramped up with loads and loads of knowledge during our entire learning period but how much scope do we really have to apply that acquired bookish knowledge? We are all running a rat race to get the highest marks, get the best jobs, etc but why can’t we ever think of being a job creator? We have become lazy and have not yet been able to break out of that slave attitude of ours. We are becoming self-centred and not least bothering about what others in this society or even our future generation would do.

What if I tell you that more the population the fresher and newer brains we would have and thus various innovative ways can be thus generated that would lead to more development? Human resource isn’t of any use unless it gets converted to human capital through their skill development. More the population more can be the ways of employment generation and more methods of poverty eradication and improving the standard of living of the people. We can clearly see that in various fields of excellence such as medical science, etc the newer generations have a more advanced thinking and reasoning capability and thus we see various major breakthroughs in the various fields.

We need to thus be more planned and systematic in our approach and focus on the practical and applied aspects of education. We need to encourage fresh brains to be job providers and not job seekers.  

If we take our neighbouring country, China, as a remarkable example in support of my argument we will be greatly astonished to find that it has the largest population in the world and yet has four times larger economy as compared to India. The only reason is its properly planned administrative infrastructure and the stress that they mainly put on applicability and practical knowledge.

Thus, it is not the population growth that is of or rather should be of main concern. Instead of wasting Rs 4,000cr on the Chatrapati Shivaji statue and Rs 3,000cr for the statue of unity, that is, spending a whooping Rs 7,000cr on just two statues, our government should focus on the 8.4cr children who don’t have proper education, the 19cr people who go hungry every day and the3,000 children that die every day due to lack of proper food.  What should be of our main concern is how we can look at our population as a resource having immense potentiality, ready to be exploited for bringing about assured development, and, not exploit it for our own selfish motives and create divides among the people based on race, caste, creed, religion, etc. we must keep it in mind that in unity lie strength.

Nothing should go waste and should be utilized to their utmost level of utility. Why should we give up even before we tried? Why to blame it all on the population growth? Why not take that one step that I would like to mention as said by the world-famous astronaut Neil Armstrong, a small step for man that would become a giant leap for mankind. I strongly feel that we should try various systematic ways to use this population resource just like we use a systematic plan for completing our huge syllabus before our exams. Then, even after trying so hard we bite the dust, then I would accept the arguments against my statement. But before that, not a single word of failure. If a country like China can then why can’t we?

We only need that zeal to achieve development keeping aside our narrow mindedness and selfish motives. None of us is going to live forever, none can take all the wealth that they have with them after they die. All our efforts after our death will obviously be futile. So why not do something back here while we are still alive and kicking that will keep us evergreen in the hearts of our future generations? why not try and convert this cure of population to a boon? why not give them something that they can cherish forever?

Thus, with the above arguments in favour of my statement I hereby rest my case.

By KUMARI SWAN SAUMYA (Student 5th sem RKMVERI)