Population and Sustainable Future

Ayaan’s school bus was trapped in heavy traffic which elongated for hours. The haze, smoke, and continuous beeping made the students dizzy. He could not control himself and yelled at everyone, “Why are there so many vehicles on the road?” Rehan, sitting next to him, smiled and replied softly that it was because there are lots of people in the city. Ayaan went into a deep thought. He later learned from his teacher that India has become the world’s largest populated country.

Look at this Fact!!

India hold approximately 18% of the World’s population on 2.4% of the world’s land! Doesn’t the population outweigh the land proportion?

Here is a prediction from Stephen Hawking “In the last 200 years, the population of our planet has grown exponentially at a rate of 1.9% per year. If it continues at this rate with the population doubling every 40 years. By 2060 we would be standing literally shoulder to shoulder”.

History and Objective

The World Population Day was first announced by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 1989. It is celebrated on the 11th of July around the globe.

By observing this day, the United Nations look forward to address this burning issue of our time. It seeks to bring attention towards overpopulation and related events like demographic trends, family planning, reproductive health care, sustainable development goals, and climate change among all stakeholders e.g., Students, NGOs, Policymakers, Government, etc.

India and Population

India is classified as a developing country. It is the biggest contributor in the Global population share. India recently surpassed China as the world’s most populous country according to the UN population estimates. As of July 23, 2024 Indian population stands at whopping  1,442,481,630 people. (worldometer)

Population explosion and Climate Change are interconnected and have cause effect relationship. Climate Change, one of the preeminent issues of the twenty-first century is elevated by population explosion. The population in turn will be exposed to climate hazards. The burden of population explosion will be shifted more towards the developing and least develop countries as these countries will have fewer resources to tackle the threats imposed by the enormous growth in population.

The increase in population stimulates various adverse social, environmental, and global impacts. It increases strain on resources and puts pressure on infrastructure. Overcrowded cities struggle to provide housing, transportation, healthcare, and education to everyone. Cities that hold a population beyond sustainability struggle to deliver a good quality of life to their citizens and often rank top in the list of polluted cities. Indian cities like Gurugram, Noida, New Delhi, and others rank among the highest air-polluted cities.

Having been the most populated country aligned with some of the highest polluted cities, people need to be aware of the pros and cons of increasing population.

Some positive and negative effects are listed down:

Positive Impacts:

• A country blessed with a population enjoys a number of work forces. This workforce can be a source of potential growth engine for the economy.

• The young generation can invest heavily in skill, talent, ideas and help thrive in innovation and entrepreneurship.

• It leads to cultural diversity within a nation. An increase in population increases the number of traditions, customs, and languages within a society. For example, cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru have become melting pots of culture.

• People’s interaction tends to increase in a society, it leads to cohesion, brotherhood, integrity and creates a sense of national identity.

Negative Impacts:

• Overcrowding: Cities are overcrowded and compacted. There are very few empty spaces in cities. It springs many problems that we deal with in our daily lives like solid waste management problems, air, water, noise pollution, lack of ventilation, etc.

• Water Shortages: There are too many people available and limited amounts of water. It led people to extract groundwater in an unsustainable way.

• Ecological Overshoot: Defined as human demand exceeds the supply of an ecosystem.

• Pressure on Infrastructure: The growing population strains infrastructure such as transportation networks, healthcare facilities, schools, and housing. It results in Traffic congestion, inadequate service, and urban sprawl.

• Pressure on Housing: Population increases lead to demand as well as shortages of housing. Homelessness, Slums, are the results of it.

Government – A Pivotal Player

Government plays the most important role in formulating policies targeted towards population control. From the controversial vasectomy campaign to recent population control bill in 2019, it remain in headlines. Various schemes were directed towards population control by the Indian government. Mission Parivar Vikas is one of them. Authorities should facilitate interconnecting schemes linking family planning with the health and education sector.

It remains significant in bringing awareness among the masses, especially the youth generation. This year theme for 2024 World Population Day is “Empowering Youth for a Sustainable Future” directed towards the involvement of youth in achieving sustainable development goals. India can achieve several sustainable development goals if it links them with proper family-directed schemes.

World Population day reminds us of our collective responsibility to create a balanced approach towards resources. Let’s ensure population growth doesn’t outstrip resources because the Earth is finite.

Lets keep our crunch for resources aligned with the goal of our Father of nation which said that Earth has enough resources to meet the needs of all but not enough to satisfy the greed.

Written by:  Aijaz Hussain