INDIA'S PROBLEM OF PLENTY

THE bitter finding of Census 2011 that we now number 1.21 billion appears somewhat palatable only if one weighs it against the fact that the growth recorded in the past one decade is the lowest in 90 years. Yes, there is some slowing down but the numbers are still frighteningly high and way above the projection by the expert technical group appointed by the government.
When you add 181 million to your population every decade, which is almost the population of Brazil – the fifth most populous country of the world – all attempts at development and growth come to naught. What to talk of development, even sustaining whatever little we have, becomes a Herculean task. The increase can be only partially attributed to the declining mortality rate. The main culprit remains the failure of the family planning drive and there is need to redouble the efforts if the runaway increase has to be curbed.
Equally alarming is the phenomenon of missing daughters. The sex ratio has improved marginally from 933 in 2001 to 940 in 2011 but the dip in the child sex ratio (below the age of six) is a matter of serious concern. The ratio of girls to boys in the 0-6 age group has dwindled from 927 in 2001 to just 914 in 2011 — with Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh being the worst culprits. It is the lowest since 1961. Jhajjar in Haryana has the dubious distinction of having the most skewed gender ratio (774) in the country, with Mahendragarh (778) coming a close second. The ills of gender discrimination and female foeticide and infanticide are taking a heavy toll. While 29 states showed clear improvement in the sex ratio, it declined in Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar and Gujarat. Apparently, the law banning sex-based abortion is not stringently implemented.
The strong urge to have a male heir is also fuelling the overall population increase. Even if a girl child is allowed to survive, she is hardly counted as an issue. The quest for offspring continues till there is a male heir. And as far as sons are concerned, two are supposed to be better than one and three to be better than two.
No wonder today we are more than the population of the US, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan combined. One silver lining is that the literacy ratio has improved in the country. It is nowhere near the Planning Commission target of 85 per cent but even 74.04 percent is some improvement over the 64.83 per cent that we had a decade back.
Although India is now out of the league of countries with very poor development record, it is still to catch up with Congo (81 per cent), South Africa (88), Brazil (90), Sri Lanka (91) and China (93). One main reason for this is that four high-population states accounting for about 44 per cent of the country’s population — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh — have not even managed 70 per cent literacy. On an all-India level, the literacy level grew more among women than men. While the female literacy in 2001 was 53.67 per cent, it has gone up to 65.46 per cent in 2011. In comparison, the male literacy rose from 75.26 to 82.14 per cent. If only women are given equal opportunities, they can one day inch ahead of men.
Thanks to sophisticated number crunching, the voluminous data painstakingly collected till just a few weeks ago has been collated in a short time and the provisional figures have been brought out quickly. The lessons learnt must be applied equally quickly to decelerate the runaway population increase.