Author: Saket Sourav, I year of B.A.,LL.B. from National Law University and Judicial Academy
It is very threatening to imagine our life without resources; we as a human being always depend on this mother earth for all day to day natural resources which we need to sustain our life. But as we are heading towards the future the population of our country is increasing drastically which will cause a disproportionate impact on the natural resources such as fresh water, food, open space and wilderness etc., the level of groundwater is also depleting day by day, it is also estimated that the natural gas supply will run out in coming 35 years, when it comes to food security population has become a liability for INDIA as with only 2.4% of total world’s land area India has to maintain approx. 17% of the total world’s population, which is quite alarming for our future generation. In a report published by NDTV, In INDIA 194.4 million people are undernourished and the growing population will make it even worse.
Our country “INDIA” faces a major problem of the population as 17% of the total world’s population resides in INDIA alone, which makes it 2nd in the list of most populated countries, according to the census of 1951 the total population of INDIA was 361 million and the present population of INDIA is around 1.4 billion which is a disquieting situation for the country and the government. As we all know that INDIA is itself finding it strenuous to cope up with the shortage of resources, the inadequate population rise is just adding on to the problem. In the present time when the global economy is facing calamitous issues, INDIA is simultaneously facing issues such as massive unemployment high death rates due to hunger, these problems, are something of which we should scare of, in the present context when we are living in this year 2020 which is highly dominated by the deadly “COVID-19”, we see that social distancing is the most useful way to tackle the growth of this virus but in a country like INDIA it is quite impossible to prevent social gatherings because of its large population, and according to the present trend the population of INDIA will keep on rising until and unless it is dealt with properly.
Following points are enough to describe the calamities which can emerge due to overpopulation
1. A detailed study on population by UNFPA said that “Population explosion in INDIA will exceed agricultural growth rate and unequal distribution of food will make it difficult to ensure that everyone is getting food”.
2. Rate of consumption of fossil fuel will be higher than that of regeneration.
3. The increase in population will silently aid the aggravating forces behind serious environmental issues like global warming, deforestation, habitat loss etc.
4. It will exaggerate and exacerbate the effects of climate change and will harm children in wombs and pregnant mothers in myriad ways, due to which the child will take birth as a malnourished baby.
5. Overpopulation will lead to poverty and the same is linked to many social reasons such as overcrowded and unhygienic living places and environment, lack of proper healthcare facilities etc.
6. Overpopulation of cities and towns may increase the chances of the emergence of pandemics and epidemics.
Laws related to Population control in INDIA
Currently, our country is having no such laws to prevent overpopulation, and questions must be asked from the government as to why no such law is being enacted by them. Back in September, 2 MPs from the ruling party itself raised the issue of overpopulation and urged the PM to enact laws on this issue as it is required to “save the country and its demography” and that uncontrolled population results in “explosions of anarchy”. Last year the PM himself expressed concern over the “POPULATION EXPLOSION” and said that the centre and the states should take this issue as a challenge and try to deal with it seriously. Rakesh Sinha, a Rajyasabha MP from BJP introduced a Private member’s bill titled “THE POPULATION REGULATION BILL 2019”, some provisions of the bill mention that persons having more than 2 children will be debarred from holding any elected office, various state govt are coming forward to make laws on 2 child policy, which is a welcome step and this must be done or else INDIA will be in the state of anarchy, Last year 125 parliamentarians signed a petition and urged president for 2 child policy, not only the parliamentarians but the Apex court on JAN 10 this year sent a notice to the home ministry and the law ministry on an application by Adv. Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay on Population control law. But till now no action has been taken by the union government on this issue, which is very disappointing for the welfare of the nation and its future generation.
INDIAN CONSTITUTION AND POPULATION CONTROL
Article 47 of the Constitution of India reads as “Duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health. The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties and, in particular, the State shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption except for medicinal purposes of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health”, few lawmakers and parliamentarians are in the view to amending Article 47A of the Indian Constitution to include: “The State shall promote small family norms by offering incentives in taxes, employment, education etc. to its people who keep their family limited to two children and shall withdraw every concession from and deprive such incentives to those not adhering to the small family norm, to keep the growing population under control”.
Article 21 of the COI grants a fundamental right to life but with the present population explosion it will become very tough for the government to provide quality life to the citizens of the country which will not only abridge the Basic fundamental rights of the citizens but will also affect the basic tenet of human rights and the resources insecurity will cause unequal distribution of resources which also abridges Article 14 which provides right to equality.
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that population growth is a big threat to the country as a whole and the government in power should come up with a law to prevent POPULATION EXPLOSION, or India will surpass China by the end of 2027 and become the most populous country of the world, which will not only harm us but will also be a grave injustice to the future generation.
Endnotes:-
3) https://swachhindia.ndtv.com/national-nutrition-week-2019-the-crisis-of-malnutrition-in-india-37531/
Author's Biograph
Saket Sourav is from Jamtara, a small town in Jharkhand. At Present he is pursuing his B.A., LL.B. from National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam. Apart from studies, he likes writing poems and is interested in sports.