India's population problems
- 2nd ed
- New Delhi McGrow Hill 1978
- 231 p.
WITHIN THE past two decades, vast changes have occurred in many aspects of life in practically every country of the world. Perhaps the most significant has been the recognition that rapid rate of population growth influences every sector of economic and social development. Population policy is rapidly becoming an accepted part of the development programmes. It is astounding that world opinion on the subject of family planning has been altered so so appreciably. Two decades ago, India was the only country where the government had developed a population policy that promoted family planning. Today over 60 per cent of the 2.5 billion people in developing nations live in countries which have adopted population policies favouring family planning.
World-wide interest in the problems evolving from rapid population growth has been promoted by two major considerations: an increasing concern about the relation between population growth and available resources and a growing awareness that unrestricted population growth tends to impose a strong con straint on the standard of living, happiness and even survival of mankind through the spiralling consumption of the fixed quantity of resources. Developing countries have come to realize that population g per cent and even higher have, in most cases, negated major benefits which growth rates of 2 to 3 might have accrued from the developmental process; and for a countr even to stand still on a per capita basis it is necessary that achievements of social and economic development must at least match population growth.