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The suggestions rooted in the old medieval approach to family planning to encourage people to have larger families overlook an important issue: while India’s population growth rate is slowing, the total number of people continues to grow. .
Take energy, for example. India’s energy demand is growing at a staggering rate of 5.4% per year from 2014 to 2023. Despite efforts to move toward clean energy, we are still heavily dependent on coal, which contributes to our increasing CO2 emissions.
The situation is not much better in terms of water. Nearly 600 million people in India are already facing severe water stress, estimates suggest. The crisis is exacerbated by groundwater depletion and the increasing frequency of drought, making access to water – especially in cities – an even greater challenge.
Rapid population growth not only puts pressure on natural resources, it also tests governance. Urban centers like Delhi and Mumbai, which already struggle with overcrowding, will also face greater challenges in housing, transportation and public health and this will become a nationwide norm if population growth remains unchecked.
India will have to weather the storm of increasing demand for energy, water and food, while struggling to maintain our capacity to produce and govern.
Encouraging larger families in this scenario would only add fuel to the fire, creating even more pressure on resources that are already stretched to their limits. The focus should be on finding ways to sustainably manage population growth, investing in better technologies and developing innovative solutions that ensure we can provide for future generations without compromising their quality of life .
The means and essence of development as a realized process is not about getting numbers on growth rates; It is about creating opportunities, improving the quality of life, and empowering individuals from the existing population to contribute meaningfully (and productively) to society.
India’s growth story, plagued by high malnutrition, inequality and informality, does not require population growth; This requires reimagining the state-led developmental vision.
,Deepanshu Mohan Professor of Economics, Dean, IDEAS, Office of Inter-Disciplinary Studies and Director of the Center for New Economics Studies (CNES) of OP Jindal Global University. He is Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics, and Fall 2024 Academic Visitor to the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford. Ankur Singh OP is a research assistant at Jindal Global University’s Center for New Economics Studies and a team member of its Infosphere initiative. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The QuintNeither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
