What to do about Overpopulation in India

I was watching the news today and I heard that India’s overpopulation crisis would be extremely detrimental to its people and may even result in the dissipation of its most important resource, water, in less than forty years. As a result, I contemplated and thought of possible solutions that India’s government could implement to save its people and avert further resource depletion. I decided to write a blog about it that would make many people aware of India’s crisis and to inform Americans why it is essential to maintain the normal fertility rate of 2.1 for developed countries in the United States.

India is a country that is undergoing a major crisis and in a few decades, may not have the necessary resources for its people to survive. If nothing is done to decrease overpopulation, India will succumb to the detrimental effects of Hindu beliefs, social strata, and poverty. Each of these detrimental effects contribute to the overwhelming rate of India’s population growth. Although they have detrimental effects on the Indian people and their surroundings, there are ways to avert India’s rapidly-increasing population and several ways to decrease its current one. I recommend implementing three important solutions, regulations, or policies of education that will surely decrease India’s population growth, and more importantly, save its people.

Education is the ultimate solution to overpopulation in India. By improving education and educating the Indian people about the use of contraceptives, increasing the number of women who pursue education, and implementing a one-child policy, I believe that India’s rate of population growth and current population will surely be reduced. The first solution to decreasing overpopulation in India is to increase the number of women who are educated.

Women have a lower literacy rate than men. In fact, most women refuse to pursue education because of inadequate sanitary facilities, the shortage of female teachers, and gender bias in the curriculum. Because many women in India are illiterate, they are dependent on the wealth and security of their offspring. I believe that by petitioning the Indian government or requesting that there be better sanitary facilities and more female teachers, the number of women who pursue education will increase in India. Increasing literacy amongst women will also allow women to understand the need to prevent excessive population growth and to be fully cognizant of the ways to control population in the future. By the government continuing to launch programs, such as the Saakshar Bharat Mission for Female Literacy, a mission aimed at decreasing female illiteracy, female literacy in India will increase. Women will be fully aware of why maintaining a normal replacement fertility rate, the average number each woman needs to replace herself and one other, is important, and why having a minimum of two children will have positive outcomes for the future.

This brings me to an alternate solution to overpopulation in India, which is similar to the one-child policy in China. A one-child policy should be implemented by the Indian government to assure a normal replacement fertility rate. By implementing a one-child policy in India, many births will be averted as well and the rate of poverty in India will decrease. To enforce the two-child policy, the government should offer incentives similar to those of China and should advertise or promote the idea of the one-child policy and its benefits. By offering incentives for an agreement to participate in the one-child policy and having consequences if the agreement is broken, the one-child policy should be very beneficial to India. By offering incentives such as better housing, better jobs, tax breaks, and a better education and job for the child, many Indians would want to participate in the one-child policy; thus, reducing overpopulation simultaneously. By the government implementing the one-child policy, meeting the needs of the Indian people in the future and avoiding their current complications will be easier.

Last but not least, the third solution to overpopulation in India would be to advertise contraceptives. By advertising contraceptives more frequently, the Indian people will be more aware of contraceptives and how they may be obtained. This includes contraceptives such as condoms, birth-control pills, and other means of pregnancy prevention that can be implemented through government advertising.

Using educational solutions such as increasing education amongst women through educational programs, implementing a one-child policy, and advertising contraceptives, will slow population growth in India and hopefully be beneficial by reducing its current population.