Population growth - a glaring problem which India needs to tackle urgently

India's recent census data reveals continuous growth of its population. The trend that was observed in all previous census data has continued in this one also. With only 2.4% of the world's surface area, India accounts for around 17.5% of its population. Obviously, this puts an enormous strain on the available natural resources and infrastructure of the country. The only relief from this data is that the population growth rate among both dominant religions of India (Hindu and Muslim) seems to be reduced compared to the past which is a good sign. Actually, it is wrong to look at the population data from the perspective of any religion, but anyone knowing about India and its politics understands that whenever this data is released it is aggressively used by political parties to reap political benefits by creating communal divide by polarizing sections of society. Religion definitely plays some role in deciding family structure and social behavior of people, but it would be utterly wrong and stupid to account growth or lack of growth of a particular section of society only to their religion. Many newspaper headlines also report census data in the form of Hindu growth or Muslim growth, this type of interpretation or presentation is utterly misleading and doesn't help in educating people about the population growth problem.

Uncontrolled population growth and declining male-to-female ratio are among some of the very serious problems India has been facing for decades. A lot of efforts are being made on the government level to deal with these issues without much success. Actually, in one way large population can be an asset as it creates a bigger consumer market and large workforce. But if this asset is not managed properly, then it can create liabilities like unemployment and the need for govt support. The current PM, Mr. Modi, always mentions India's huge population, especially its younger people as the nation's asset and he is right in doing so. But this asset, if not engaged in meaningful activities, can cause a lot of chaos and disturbance, one recent example of this is the huge unrest caused in Gujarat by the demand for reservation by youths belonging to the Patel community. Ever-growing population means an ever-growing demand for infrastructure, food, and energy. The problem is by the time infrastructure projects are finished (say in 10 years or so), the population growth makes that project inadequate, so, the purpose for which that project was started is not normally met. This is the problem of India's government-run schemes and projects, the burden of population makes most of them useless or ineffective.

Spreading awareness about the use of contraceptives and communicating the benefits of family planning effectively are the only options to control population growth, many previous governments have done a good job in this sector, but this needs to be a continuous process. Blaming any particular community, caste, or religion is not going to help, this attitude might benefit politically certain political parties, but it is definitely not going to solve this issue. Actually, there are certain issues on which all political parties should work collectively as these are important issues for India, and population control is definitely one of them. I hope that this data is used to make good governance policies and programs and not to play some dirty politics to win some elections. If properly analyzed and studied such data can be very useful in formulating and implementing various types of social and educational programs which can produce long-term positive results for all sections of society. Such data is a very important tool for any government, but the unfortunate part is governments rarely use it effectively for this purpose. Population growth is a very serious problem, and very important for India if it wants to transform into a country with proper infrastructure and better opportunities for all its citizens. The burden of an ever-growing population can derail many ambitious plans and projects. If we are at all serious about the welfare of their country, then we need to tackle this glaring problem with all seriousness and honesty, otherwise, no matter what we build the unbearable weight of the growing population is bound to brush it.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Census_of_India

Chhattisgarh incident - if it is not an eyeopener then we are already a dead society

The unfortunate tragedy which unfolded in Chhattisgarh has shocked me deeply. It's not that I don't know how these government camps are conducted and what is the situation of sanitation in government-run clinics but I was still shocked by this incident. At least 13 women lost their lives and many more are in critical condition after getting sterilization operations performed in one of the government-run camps. This is not the first time any such mishap happened in government-run camps but I think the loss of lives on such a large scale never happened before. The public health system is in very bad shape in India, a lot of corruption, and lack of accountability plagues this system so much that it is almost dysfunctional. The population control program is part of the health ministry of the central government as well as the state government. Every state sets some targets that it needs to complete to get the required funding which is allocated for that specific purpose and pressure to fulfill those targets can result in horrible incidents like this one where people lose their lives. Lack of transparency, poor follow-up, and inquiry into such incidents allows most culprits to roam free. The system has failed to put any check on the occurrence of such unwanted incidents. Along with people who actually conduct these camps (doctors and medical officers) government machinery and health ministers are equally responsible for these mishaps. Unless all directly and indirectly concerned people are held accountable and punished appropriately I don't think these types of instances will stop.

This is a cruel joke on people and their lives (especially poor and uneducated), they are dragged to these camps with the lure of money or some holiday from their work and doctors casually play with these people's health. Any medical procedure like surgery, especially something like a sterilization operation should not be performed without informed consent. Here word "informed" is more important than consent, it is very easy to get consent from these uneducated poor people who sign any form just in exchange for a few bucks or just because some "educated" person like a doctor is telling them to do so. They think that if some doctor or some respected politician or educated person from their village is telling them to do this thing then it must be good. We can call it consent but it is not informed consent which is a must for any medical procedure like this. The government or any agency can not hide behind the technical rules that we did our job according to rule books and it is people's fault that they go to such camps and die.

Lack of transparency and accountability at every level is a major reason why such incidents keep on happening. This is the same state where ~100 people lost their eyesight after a cataract operation in government camps, and there was no news about what happened to those culprits involved in that incident. These incidents create headlines for few days, and there are attempts to politicize these issues to score some political points but slowly some other issue takes over and people forget about it, in the end nothing substantial happens to put an end to these tragic events. Politicizing any event like this is bad but some political accountability is needed for such incidents. After all, politicians are an important part of the administration that plans and executes such events. They are the people who get the credit for any successful implementation of government schemes, so, they should also get the blame and punishment for such disasters. Normally, only poor and uneducated people are the victims of such events. These are the people who are not active on Facebook, Twitter, or WhatsApp, they are not going to flood social media with their protest posts but they are equally important citizens of India and they need the same treatment that is offered to any citizen from any metro city.

Unless they establish proper mechanisms at every level to make sure that SOP (standard operating procedures) are followed wherever people's health issues are in question we will keep on witnessing such events. Just a resignation or arrest of one doctor or officer is not a solution to this serious problem. We need systematic and administrative reforms if we want to put an end to such incidents. If this incident is not an eye-opener for the people and politicians of India then I am afraid that we are a dead society that doesn't care about the lives of the poor of our society. I hope this incident is the last such incident and necessary steps are taken to avoid such tragedy in the future.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:

1. Chhattisgarh sterilisation tragedy: Directors of drug company arrested; doctor blames govt

2. Chhattisgarh Sterilisation Deaths: My Resignation Won't Solve the Problem, Says Raman Singh