Effects of Population Growth on Society

We need not go into the complexities of the population theory of Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) to understand the impact of population growth on societies. But we must do in relation to developing nations only as advanced nations had already crossed stage 4 of the Malthusian Theory or even proved it wrong.

Let us start at the micro level. A family has certain fixed parameters like a house with a fixed space limit and a fixed monthly income which varies only within predictable limits. Now, if the house and the income are meant ideally for a family of four, then with the number of children crossing two and increasing to four or five, tremendous pressure is created upon space and income. Living becomes unhealthy, water becomes insufficient, nutrition gets affected for worse, education of children gets affected for worse and stress and tension become the order of the day. Grown up children fall in bad company and fail to find gainful employment. Weddings make the situation go beyond control.

A country has fixed land and other resources ideally meant for a population that can subsist with a reasonable per capita income and available opportunities. With the population going beyond that limit create havoc for the country and the society like in that micro family unit. Lack of education outlets, lack of health and nutrition facilities, shortage of drinking water, unemployment, poverty and increasing crimes dog the society.

Now let us focus on the most dangerous situation of a surplus or floating population that is fast becoming a curse for countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and others.

Problems are always rooted to the village level as all citizens are basically linked to the villages. As the cultivable land becomes increasingly fragmented due to multiplying members of farmer families many of them no longer are able to make a livelihood out of farming. A surplus population not supported by cultivation is thus created and if daily wage work is not sufficiently available in a particular area, this surplus population starts migrating to the cities.

They create the far more dangerous problem of a floating population in urban areas adding to the pressure on basic amenities. Illegal hutments on streets and pavements come up with no water or sanitation facilities. As they are desperate for a livelihood and have basically nothing to lose they stop at nothing to make some money. Apart from the routine works of sweeping, cleaning, rag picking and household chores they start petty crimes like snatching, mugging, robbing and even killing and join underworld dons in major cities. With terror becoming a global industry this huge unemployed population, consisting of both permanent and floating segments, is a time bomb.

Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, is bursting at the seams thanks to this ever inflating floating population leading to a permanent state of tension and unrest. New Delhi, the national capital of India, has also become the crime capital where women are extremely unsafe thanks to this same malady. Add to it, the specter of immense riches concentrated only on a few and the ever demonstrative inequality.

Time is running out for such cities and many more societies. Priorities must be set right away.