Even in India, Population = The Forgotten Problem

Population: The forgotten problem

See original/source content: http://www.asianage.com/columnists/population-forgotten-problem-208

In all the recent activity that we have witnessed on the economic front, representing a continuous attempt to free the economy from the clutches of red-tape, statism and rampant bureaucracy, there is one factor which finds no mention at all either in the official vocabulary or among the Opposition. It is almost as in the famous couplet of Faiz Ahmed Faiz:

Woh bâât sare fasâne mein jiskâ jikr na thâ
Woh bâât unko bahut nâgawâr gujri hai.
(That point about which there was no mention at all in the whole saga, is the very point which they find most uncomfortable and unpleasant.)

The point, of course, is the alarming failure of our population control policy. The 2011 Census has shown that the growth rate is 1.3 per cent per annum, resulting in a staggering annual increase of almost 160 [sic] million people to the population of India. This means that if the growth rate remains constant, the increase in absolute terms will expand every year, especially since life expectancy has steadily risen and is now well over 60 years.