ADVERTISEMENTS:
This article throws light upon the nine major disadvantages of population growth. Some of the disadvantages are: 1. Pressure of Population on Land 2. Low Per Capita Income 3. Low Per Capita Availability of Essential Articles 4. Burden of Unproductive Consumers 5. Increase in Unemployment 6. Low Quality of Life 7. Environmental Degradation and Others.
Disadvantage # 1. Pressure of Population on Land:
Over the last four decades from 1971 to 2001, the population of India has increased from 108.9 million in 1971 to 180.6 million in 2001. Correspondingly, the labour force engaged in agriculture has increased. According to the World Development Report, 64 per cent of labour force is engaged in agricultural operations in India.
This has put more pressure on land. As a result, the average size of holdings has been reduced to 0.23 hectare, despite increase in operational holdings. This has been due to sub-division and fragmentation of holdings with the increase in the number of family members.
Disadvantage # 2. Low Per Capita Income:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
During 1951-1997, the growth rate of net national product at factor cost has been 4.1 per cent per annum. But the average growth rate of population has been 2.2 per cent per annum. With the result that per capita net national product has been 1.9 per cent over this period. This slow growth rate of per capita income has been the result of high growth rate of population despite high national income in certain years.
Disadvantage # 3. Low Per Capita Availability of Essential Articles:
With population growing at an annual average rate of 2.2 per cent, the per capita net availability of certain essential articles of consumption has been very low. The per capita net availability was 33.2 gms of pulses and 159.7 gms of food grains per day.; edible oil 7.5 kg., vanaspati 1.0 kg., sugar 14.5 kg. and cloth 30.9 metres per year in 1998.
Even though the supply of some of these articles is being maintained through domestic production and imports, yet their per capita availability has been low due to the rapid growth of population.
Disadvantage # 4. Burden of Unproductive Consumers:
The number of unproductive consumers is increasing in India. Unproductive consumers are those who are not employed but they do consume. They include children below the age of 15 years and old persons who are above the age of 60 years. It is not that all children and old persons are not employed.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
A few among them may be employed part-time or full time. It is also possible that some persons in the age group 15-59 years may not be engaged in any work. So it is difficult to estimate correctly the number of unproductive consumers (or non-working population).
Still, according to the 1991 Census, the combined percentage of children below 14 years and aged persons above 60 years was 42.5 per cent. If the number of unemployed in the age group 15-59 years is added to this, the percentage of unproductive consumers was 62.4 per cent in 1991.
According to the Ninth Five Year Plan, this burden is likely to increase from 63.2 million to 112.9 million by 2016 for population above 60 years and of children below 15 years to 350.4 million. Thus it will be a huge burden on the Indian economy to feed such a large number of persons.
Disadvantage # 5. Increase in Unemployment:
With rapid increase in population, the most daunting task in India is to provide employment not only to the growing labour force every year, but also to reduce the backlog of the unemployed from the previous years. The estimates of the Planning Commission it the end of each
Five Year Plan reveal the backlog of the unemployed persons which had been increasing. At the beginning of the First Plan there were 3.3 million unemployed which increased to 5.3 million at the end of the Plan. The number of unemployed increased to 7.1 million at the end of the Second Plan, to 9.6 million at the end of the Third Plan, and to 13.6 million at the end of the Fourth Plan. Since these estimates were uni-dimensional, they failed to show the extent of unemployment and under-employment in rural and urban areas. Hence they were discontinued from the beginning of the Fifth Plan.
Thereafter, the Planning Commission has been making estimates of unemployment on the basis of usual status (chronic), current weekly status, and current daily status. The estimates of the Planning Commission reveal that the total unemployment in all the three categories were 65 million at the end of the Eighth Plan.
During the Ninth Plan, the growth of labour force had been estimated at 2.51 per cent per annum and the number of unemployed were expected to increase by 52 million. According to the Ninth Plan, the increase in the growth of labour force requires a commensurate increase in the pace of creation of additional work opportunities in the Ninth Plan.
With the growth in labour force at an average annual rate of 2.4 per cent, there is little possibility of reducing unemployment for years to come.
Disadvantage # 6. Low Quality of Life:
The rapidly growing population has kept the quality of life of the majority of Indians at a very low level. According to the Human Development Report, 1999, the low quality of life is reflected in the deprivation in knowledge by illiteracy, deprivation in economic provisioning by the percentage of people lacking access to health services and safe water and the percentage of children under five who are moderately or severely underweight.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The World Development Report, 1999-2000 reveals that infant mortality rate in India in 1997 was 71 per 1000, maternal mortality rate per lakh live births between 1990-97 was 440, child malnutrition under age 5 during 1992-97 was 50 per cent, access to sanitation was 16 per cent of population, and access to safe drinking water was to 85 per cent of population.
But the overall measure of low quality of life is reflected in the incidence of poverty which was 35 per cent of the total population of India in 1994, as per the World Bank Report. The main cause of this large percentage of population below the poverty line is the rapidly increasing population of the country.
Disadvantage # 7. Environmental Degradation:
Rising population is a major source of environmental degradation in India. Population affects the environment through the use of natural resources and production of wastes. These lead to loss of biodiversity, air and water pollution and increased pressure on land.
Excessive deforestation and overgrazing by the growing population has led to land degradation. A major cause of the loss of bio-diversity has been the depletion of vegetation in order to expand agriculture by the rapidly rising population. Industrialisation, urbanisation, growth of mega cities and increasing vehicular traffic have led to atmospheric pollution.
With the growth of big towns and cities to accommodate growing population, there has been water pollution. Its major sources are discharge of domestic sewage and industrial effluents. They, in turn, have resulted in polluting rivers, streams, lakes, coastal areas and underground sources.
The polluted water has led to such water-borne diseases as diarrhoea, intestinal worms, hepatitis, etc. The pollution of coastal and marine areas has endangered marine species and commercially important marine flora and fauna. Thus rapid population growth has been leading to environmental degradation on a large scale in India.
Disadvantage # 8. Burden on Public Utility Services:
Rapid increase in population puts a heavy burden on social infrastructure like health care, education, housing (both rural and urban), water supply, sanitation, power, roads, railways, etc. Infant mortality is already very high. 53 per cent of children under 4 years are undernourished. About 3000 villages are without any source of drinking water in India. Vast areas of cities have grown into slums and scatter settlements.
Half the population is illiterate. There is mass illiteracy among women, especially in rural areas. The goal of universalisation of education is far away. According to the World Development Report, 1999-2000, the public expenditure on education in India was only 3.4 per cent of GNP in 1996.
Due to the paucity of financial resources, India has not been able to provide these basic services to its people adequately due to a large increase in population. Besides, rising population puts pressure on the maintenance and administration of law and order in the country.
Disadvantage # 9. Adverse Effects on Saving, Investment and Capital Formation:
One of the most serious effects of rapidly increasing population is on saving and investment and the rate of capital formation in the country. As observed above, India’s population has been growing at an average rate of 2.2 per cent per year which puts a burden on its financial resources to feed and provide for the teeming millions, especially the unproductive consumers.
According to Prof. Spigler in developed countries there are 2 dependents against 3 workers, whereas in underdeveloped countries there are 4 dependents against 3 workers.
This high burden of dependency reduces the capacity of people to save. This equally applies to India, because such persons do not produce anything but they do consume. They are supported by their families. The majority of such families have low incomes.
So their savings are too low to be invested. Further, their incomes being low, they do not come under the tax net (that is, they do not pay any tax to the government). Rather, the government spends on them to provide various social services. This is called demographic investment which simply maintains their existing standard of living of misery and poverty.
Such persons are a drag on the economic development of the country. They are to a great extent responsible for low rate of saving, low rate of investment and low rate of capital formation. As pointed out by Prof. Meier, “The high dependency requires the economy to -divert a considerable part of resources, that might otherwise go into capital formation to the maintenance of a high percentage of dependents who may never become producers”.