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Problems Of Population Growth
Problems Of Population Growth
Problem Of Population Growth
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With the emergence of the modern era, a new problem has arisen to challenge every person from each nation on the globe. One nation in particular has had much more difficulty with this issue than others. India is currently facing the dilemma of how to control its population in order to preserve order in its country. This has never been much of a problem throughout history, as nations usually went to war, suffered a famine or some other disaster occurred to fix any problem that it might face with population. This held true for India until after World War II, when the country’s population exploded. In this age of ethics and non-violence, this situation poses a particularly interesting dilemma for the people of India, and subsequently everyone …show more content…
The reasons why Britain did this came from famines that kept striking India, and as an extension of the Empire, Britain felt compelled to help the inhabitants of the colony. Moreover, studies were conducted by British officials on the census data and, according to Sarah Hodges, came to a conclusion that “…colonial concern with famine and population was loosely based on a Malthusian model. In this scheme, population operated in a system of natural checks and balances (e.g. a high death rate during famine and a high, post-famine birth rate).” For those who have not heard of Malthus, he was an English economist who proposed that population had a limit and that the restrictions placed upon the population were directly correlated with how many resources the population controlled and consumed. To put it in Malthus’s own words: “…the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man. Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio.” This assertion by Malthus states that there is no way that man harvest enough from the earth in order to keep pace with the demands of the population. In short, there will come a time when the population will overshoot the natural limit, at which time nature will check the population. This will cause the population to decrease at or below the limit and plateau for a time. Therefore, Hodges’s conclusion stands that the British Empire would have seen the deaths from the famines as a way for nature to check the Indian population. Likewise, the British officials would view the scenario of a high birth rate after the famine as a natural consequence from the loss of life during the famine. This cycle of checks and balances was
In the essay “Population, Delusion and Reality,” Amartya Sen discusses two opposing approaches to population control. These two approaches are “collaboration” and “override” The collaboration approach calls for a voluntary choice as well as a collaborative solution to controlling the population growth. The collaborative approach relies on more choices for men and women, a more educated and rational decision on the part of both men and women, and an open arena for a more extensive discussion on such subjects. These men and women are able to make such rational decisions based on the opportunity to be more educated and with a sense of self-confidence when presented with the ability to do so by having public policies such as family planning, health care, bigger and better education facilities and a sense of economic well being. Our ability to solve problems by making rational and educated decisions seems like a better alternative than to forcing a resolution. The “override” approach works by means of legal or economic coercion, such as the means that China forces with their “one child policy.” With this approach, the government may deny individuals of job opportunities or deny housing. These people are left with no other choice but to follow along with what the government would want them to do.
One of the more extreme measures taken in an attempt to control population has been China's one-child policy. Population advocate Garet Hardin suggests the rest of the world adopt similar policies. This paper is to show a country's government acting on theories that Hardin is popular for and the ethical and environmental effects that it had on people and the land. Hardin fails to see the ethical problems laid out by governments that suppress peoples thoughts and beliefs.
Once China’s population began to grow at an exponential rate the government feared that there would eventually be social unrest, and chaos. This social unrest and chaos would eventually cause an internal crisis for the country. At that time, China’s leaders believed that population control was one of its top priorities because it was precondition for the coun...
Now, the ideas of Thomas Malthus generally do not apply to the world today. It is important to understand that Malthus wanted to create a theory that explained the success of people in a population. Like Darwin’s theory of evolution (which was helped formed by Malthus doctrine) it is survival of the fittest. I do bel...
Malthus’ An Essay on the Principle of Population, he states “I think I may fairly make two postulata. First, that food is necessary to the existence of man. Secondly, that the passion between the sexes is necessary and will remain nearly in its present state.” He came up with the Population Principle in which he argued that population, when unregulated, increases geometrically, whereas subsistence increases arithmetically. This then becomes an issue when the population outweigh the amount of food available. Malthus then said that once this level was surpassed, that famine would be the main source of the limit to population growth and that premature death was the most natural way to control the
In 1990, the article published by Amartya Sen entitled "More than 100 million women are missing", referring to the absence of women in Asia caused by infanticide and female feticide, captured public attention and since then the issue has been studied by many authors. In this article, two cases will briefly discuss, India and China.
The population of the world is nearing eight billion people. The population is taking over the world, and the food is diminishing. The population is growing too large for the planet to sustain. There must be rules about the growth of the population if the human race is to survive and grow together. If the race that is humanity wishes to survive, population control must be in effect.
The practice of female infanticide shows how desirable having a male child is that parents would take the lives of a female baby. The dowry system in India is the main cause of female infanticide in India. Gender inequalities in the rural part of northern India exhibit female infanticide occurs here the most despite laws to abolish these acts. Men hold a higher value in this society because a system they adapted many years ago. Men are seen as an asset or of value because at one point his future wife and her family will “pay” for him. Daughters are opposite and viewed as a burden to the family because she will have to marry one day and that will cost her parents. So women are not viewed equally here even as infants, they don’t even stand a chance. Officials have tried to make laws to assist in reducing female infanticide but people have continued to follow traditions of the dowry systems putting the population at risk as well
It is a known fact that the world population is increasing without bound; however, there is a debate if this increase is a good thing or if it will prove catastrophic. The article “The Tragedy of the Commons” by Garrett Hardin discusses how the ever-increasing world population will exhaust the world of its natural resources, and eliminate human’s capability of survival. On the other side of the argument is Julian L. Simon who wrote “More People, Greater Wealth, More Resources, Healthier Environment.” This article proposes the theory that with an increase in population, human’s quality of life is amplified. One particular issue that they both mention and have drastically different views on is the future of agriculture and human’s ability to sustain it.
Owing to India’s diversity, these identities are determined by caste, ancestry, socioeconomic class, religion, sexual orientation and geographic location, and play an important role in determining the social position of an individual (Anne, Callahan & Kang, 2011). Within this diversity, certain identities are privileged over others, due to social hierarchies and inequalities, whose roots are more than a thousand years old. These inequalities have marginalized groups and communities which is evident from their meagre participation in politics, access to health and education services and
Why are Indian women and children so venerable to this condition? Evidence suggests that colonialism, high population, intents poverty, low educationa...
India, the second highest populated country in the world after China, with 1.27 billion people currently recorded to be living there and equates for 17.31% (India Online Pages 2014) of the world's population, but is still considered a developing country due to it’s poverty and illiteracy rates. As these nations continue to grow at rates that are too fast for resources to remain sustainable, the government’s in these areas wi...
Sagade, Jaya. Child Marriage in India: Socio - Legal and Human Rights Dimensions. Oxford University
Amanda Hitchcock. 2001. “Rising Number of Dowry Deaths in India.” Annual Editions: Anthropology 11/12, 34th Edition. Elvio Angeloni. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
One of the problems facing our world is population. It began about ten thousand years ago when the humans settled and began farming. The farming provides more food for the people thus making the population grow. Now we are about 6 billion in population and in a few years we will be around 10 to 11 billion. Therefore, our population will almost double in size. This means that we will need more food to support us. A study in 1986 by Peter Vitonesk, a Stanford biologist, showed that the humans are already consuming about 38.8 of what is possible for us to eat. Thus, if the population keeps increasing, the percentage will increase also, making us closer and closer to the biophysical limits. By studying the earth's capacity, Dr. Cornell, another biologist, believes that we are already crowded for this would. He believes that our world can only support two million people. Not only this, but population can cause complicated problems to the countries with very high population. These countries will need more schools to educate its people, they will need more hospitals and public health to take care of their people, and they will need more water and more soil for farming to feed all the people. In order to solve the population growth problem, the people should be educated. Once the people are educated they will be aware of the problems they ca...