India's Population Problem

Poverty, deprivation, illiteracy, disease and distress are all an outcome of population growth that is disproportionate to the growth of productive resources in India. Number of people below the poverty line in 1997 was equal to the total population of India in 1947. Our population problem remains as it was 50 years ago. Rather, it has gone worse both in quantitative and qualitative terms. Qualitative in the sense that those families, which can afford to provide good education and health, are controlling the births and those with no or poor wherewithal are producing children without any check, thoughtlessly, Therefore, the problem needs to be addressed in some innovative and meaningful manner. There is plethora of projects and programmes in the form of centrally sponsored schemes and state schemes directed at poverty alleviation, education, health provision, housing and food nutrition etc., which have not delivered the benifits as desired or expected. Investment on these programmes has yieled results much below the potential. India is not only over-populated, but over-population is concentrated in poor/illiterate sections of society, who primarily reside in rural areas. This book will be useful to researchers, policymakers, civil society organizations and students of Indian economy, polity, and society.