Issues involved in enforcement of environmental legislation - Public awareness - Human Population and the Environment: Population growth, variation among nations, population explosion, Family Welfare Programme

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Issues involved in enforcement of environmental legislation - Public awareness - Human Population and the Environment: Population growth, variation among nations, population explosion, Family Welfare Programme

Issues involved in enforcement of environmental legislation

Environmental legislation is evolved to protect our environment as a whole, our health, and the earth’s resources. The presence of a legislation to protect air, water, soil, etc. does not necessarily mean that the problem is addressed. Once a legislation is made at the global, National or State level, it has to be implemented. For a successful environmental legislation to be implemented, there has to be an effective agency to collect relevant data, process it and pass it on to a law enforcement agency. If the law or rule is broken by an individual or institution, this has to be punished through the legal process. Information to law enforcement officials must also come from concerned individuals. In most situations, if no cognizance is given, the interested concerned individual must file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) for the protection of the environment. There are several NGOs in the country such as WWF-I, BEAG and the BNHS which take these matters to court in the interest of conservation. Anyone can request them to help in such matters. There are also legal experts such as MC Mehta who have successfully fought cases in the courts to support environmental causes. A related issue is the fact that there are several irregular practices for which a bribe to an unscrupulous official is used to cover up an offence. Thus the general public must act as a watch dog not only to inform concerned authorities, but also to see that actions are taken against offenders.

Public awareness

Environmental sensitivity in our country can only grow through a major public awareness campaign. This has several tools. The electronic media, the press, school and college education, adult education, are all essentially complementary to each other. Green movements can grow out of small local initiatives to become major players in advocating environmental protection to the Government. Policy makers will only work towards environmental preservation if there is a sufficiently large bank of voters that insist on protecting the environment. Orienting the media to project pro environmental issues is an important aspect. Several advertising campaigns frequently have messages that are negative to environmental preservation.

Using an Environmental Calendar of Activities:

There are several days of special environmental significant which can be celebrated in the community and can be used for creating environmental awareness.

February 2: World Wetland Day is celebrated to create awareness about wetlands and their value to mankind. On February 2nd 1971, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International importance was signed at Ramsar in Iran. You can initiate a campaign for proper use and maintenance of wetlands in the vicinity of the city or village.

March 21: World Forestry Day can be used to initiate a public awareness campaign about the extremely rapid disappearance of our forests. The program must be action oriented and become an ongoing process with activities such as tree plantation.

April 7: World Health Day – The World Health Organisation (WHO) came into existence on this day in 1948. A campaign for personal sanitation and hygiene to understanding issues of public health, occupational health, etc. can be carried out. Topics that deal with environment related diseases and their spread can be discussed and preventive measures suggested.

April 18: World Heritage Day can be used to arrange a visit to a local fort or museum. Environment also includes our cultural monuments. Students could use this opportunity to create awareness among the local people about their very valuable heritage sites.

April 22: Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970 by a group of people in the USA to draw attention to increasing environmental problems caused by humans on earth. This day is now celebrated all over the world with rallies, festivals, clean-ups, special shows and lectures.

June 5: World Environment Day marks the anniversary of the Stockholm Conference on Human Environment in Sweden in 1972, where nations of the world gathered to share their concern over human progress at the expense of the environment. This day can be used to project the various environmental activities that the college has undertaken during the year. New pledges must be made to strengthen an environmental movement at the college level.

June 11: World Population Day is a day when the vital link between population and environment could be discussed in seminars held at college and other NGOs.

August 6: Hiroshima Day could be used to discuss our own Bhopal Gas Tragedy and the Chernobyl disaster.

September 16: World Ozone Day was proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Day for the preservation of the ozone layer. This is a good occasion for students to find out more about the threats to this layer and initiate discussion on what they can do to help mitigate this global threat. The day marks the Montreal Protocol signed in 1987 to control production and consumption of ozone depleting substances.

September 28: Green Consumer Day could be used to create an awareness in consumers about various products. Students could talk to shopkeepers and consumers about excess packaging and a campaign to use articles which are not heavily packaged could be carried out.

October 1-7: Wildlife Week can consist of seminars on conserving our species and threatened ecosystems. The State forest Departments organize various activities in which every student should take part. A poster display, a street play to highlight India’s rich biodiversity can be planned. Wildlife does not only mean animals, but includes plants as well.

Population growth, variation among nations

Our global human population, 6 billion at present, will cross the 7 billion mark by 2015. The needs of this huge number of human beings cannot be supported by the Earth’s natural resources, without degrading the quality of human life.

In the near future, fossil fuel from oil fields will run dry. It will be impossible to meet the demands for food from existing agro systems. Pastures will be overgrazed by domestic animals and industrial growth will create ever-greater problems due to pollution of soil, water and air. Seas will not have enough fish. Larger ozone holes will develop due to the discharge of industrial chemicals into the atmosphere, which will affect human health. Global warming due to industrial gases will lead to a rise in sea levels and flood all low-lying areas, submerging coastal agriculture as well as towns and cities. Water ‘famines’ due to the depletion of fresh water, will create unrest and eventually make countries go to war. The control over regional biological diversity, which is vital for producing new medicinal and industrial products, will lead to grave economic conflicts between biotechnologically advanced nations and the biorich countries. Degradation of ecosystems will lead to extinction of thousands of species, destabilizing natural ecosystems of great value. These are only some of the environmental problems related to an increasing human population and more intensive use of resources that we are likely to face in future. These effects can be averted by creating a mass environmental awareness movement that will bring about a change in people’s way of life.

Increase in production per capita of agricultural produce at a global level ceased during the 1980’s. In some countries, food shortage has become a permanent feature. Two of every three children in South Africa are underweight.

In other regions famines due to drought have become more frequent. Present development strategies have not been able to successfully address these problems related to hunger and malnutrition. On the other hand, only 15% of the world’s population in the developed world is earning 79% of income! Thus the disparity in the extent of per capita resources that are used by people who live in a ‘developed’ country as against those who live in a ‘developing’ country is extremely large. Similarly, the disparity between the rich and the poor in India is also growing.

The increasing pressures on resources place great demands on the in-built buffering action of nature that has a certain ability to maintain a balance in our environment. However, current development strategies that essentially lead to short-term gains have led to a breakdown of our Earth’s ability to replenish the resources on which we depend.

Global population growth

The world population is growing by more than 90 million per year, of which 93% is in developing countries. This will essentially prevent their further economic ‘development’. In the past, population growth was a gradual phenomenon and the Earth’s ability to replenish resources was capable of adjusting to this increase. In the recent past, the escalation in growth of human numbers has become a major cause of our environmental problems.

Present projections show that if our population growth is controlled, it will still grow to 7.27 billion by 2015. However, if no action is taken it will become a staggering 7.92 billion.

Human population growth increased from: 1 to 2 billion, in 123 years. 2 to 3 billion, in 33 years.

3 to 4 billion, in 14 years. 4 to 5 billion, in 13 years. 5 to 6 billion, in 11 years.

It is not the census figures alone that need to be stressed, but an appreciation of the impact on natural resources of the rapid escalation in the rate of increase of human population in the recent past. The extent of this depletion is further increased by affluent societies that consume per capita more energy and resources, that less fortunate people. This is of great relevance for developing a new ethic for a more equitable distribution of resources.

In the first half of the 1900s human numbers were growing rapidly in most developing countries such as India and China. In some African countries the growth was also significant. In contrast, in the developed world population growth had slowed down. It was appreciated that the global growth rate was depleting the Earth’s resources and was a direct impediment to human development. Several environmental ill-effects were linked with the increasing population of the developing world. Poverty alleviation programs failed, as whatever was done was never enough as more and more people had to be supported on Earth’s limited resources. In rural areas population growth led to increased fragmentation of farm land and unemployment. In the urban sector it led to inadequate housing and an increasing level of air pollution from traffic, water pollution from sewage, and an inability to handle solid waste. By the 1970s most countries in the developing world had realized that if they had to develop their economics and improve the lives of their citizens they would have to curtail population growth.

Though population growth shows a general global decline, there are variations in the rate of decline in different countries. By the 1990s the growth rate was decreasing in most countriessuch as China and India. The decline in the 90s was greatest in India. However, fertility continues to remain high in sub Saharan African countries.

There are cultural, economic, political and demographic reasons that explain the differences in the rate of population control in different countries. It also varies in different parts of certain countries and is linked with community and/ or religious thinking. Lack of Government initiatives for Family Welfare Program and a limited access to a full range of contraceptive measures are serious impediments to limiting population growth in several countries.

POPULATION EXPLOSION – FAMILY WELFARE PROGRAM

In response to our phenomenal population growth, India seriously took up an effective Family Planning Program which was renamed the Family Welfare Program. Slogans such as ‘ Hum do hamare do ’ indicated that each family should not have more than two children. It however has taken several decades to become effective.

At the global level by the year 2000, 600 million, or 57% of women in the reproductive age group, were using some method of contraception. However the use of contraceptive measures is higher in developed countries – 68%, and lower in developing countries - 55%. Female sterilization is the most popular method of contraception used in developing countries at present. This is followed by the use of oral contraceptive pills and, intrauterine devices for women, and the use of condoms for men. India and China have been using permanent sterilization more effectively than many other countries in the developing world.

The best decision for the method used by a couple depends on a choice that they make for themselves. This must be based on good advice from doctors or trained social workers who can suggest the full range of methods available for them to choose from.

Informing the public about the various contraceptive measures that are available is of primary importance. This must be done actively by Government Agencies such as Health and Family Welfare, as well as Education and Extension workers. It is of great importance for policy makers and elected representatives of the people – Ministers, MPs, MLAs at Central and State levels – to understand the great and urgent need to support Family Welfare. The media must keep people informed about the need to limit family size and the ill effects of a growing population on the worlds resources.

The decision to limit family size depends on a couple’s background and education. This is related to Government Policy, the effectiveness of Family Welfare Programs, the educational level, and information levels in mass communication. Free access to Family Welfare information provided through the Health Care System, is in some cases unfortunately counteracted by cultural attitudes. Frequently misinformation and inadequate information are reasons why a family does not go in for limiting its size.

The greatest challenge the world now faces is how to supply its exploding human population with the resources it needs. It is evident that without controlling human numbers, the Earth’s resources will be rapidly exhausted. In addition economically advanced countries and rich people in poorer countries use up more resources than they need.

As population expands further, water shortages will become acute. Soil will become unproductive. Rivers, lakes and coastal waters will be increasingly polluted. Water related diseases already kill 12 million people every year in the developing world. By 2025, there will be 48 countries that are starved for water. Air will become increasingly polluted. Air pollution already kills 3 million people every year.

The first ‘green revolution’ in the ‘60s produced a large amount of food but has led to several environmental problems. Now, a new green revolution is needed, to provide enough food for our growing population, that will not damage land, kill rivers by building large dams, or spread at the cost of critically important forests, grasslands and wetlands.

The world’s most populous regions are in coastal areas. These are critical ecosystems and are being rapidly destroyed. Global climate change is now a threat that can affect the very survival of high population density coastal communities. In the sea, fish populations are suffering from excessive fishing. Once considered an inexhaustible resource, over fishing has depleted stocks extremely rapidly. It will be impossible to support further growth in coastal populations on existing fish reserves.

Human populations will inevitably expand from farm lands into the remaining adjacent forests. Many such encroachments in India have been regularised over the last few decades. But forest loss has long-term negative effects on water and air quality and the loss of biodiversity is still not generally seen as a major deterrent to human well-being. The extinction of plant and animal species resulting from shrinking habitats threatens to destroy the Earth’s living web of life.

Energy use is growing, both due to an increasing population, and a more energy hungry lifestyle that increasingly uses consumer goods that require large amounts of energy for their production, packaging, and transport. Our growing population also adds to the enormous amount of waste.

With all these linkages between population growth and the environment, Family Welfare Programs have become critical to human existence.

Planning for the future

How Governments and people from every community meet challenges such as limiting population size, protecting the natural environment, change their consumer oriented attitudes, reduce habits that create excessive waste, elevates poverty and creates an effective balance between conservation and development will determine the worlds future.

The Urban Challenge

Population increases will continue in urban centers in the near future. The UN has shown that by 2025 there will be 21 "megacities" most of which will be situated in developing countries. Urban centers are already unable to provide adequate housing, services such as water and drainage systems, growing energy needs, or better opportunities for income generation

Methods of sterilization

India’s Family Welfare Program has been fairly successful but much still needs to be achieved to stabilize our population. The most effective measure is the one most suited to the couple once they have been offered all the various options that are available. The Family Welfare Program advocates a variety of measures to control population. Permanent methods or sterilisation are done by a minor surgery. Tubectomy in females is done by tying the tubes that carry the ovum to the uterus. Male sterilization or vasectomy, is done by tying the tubes that carry the sperm. Both are very simple procedures, done under local anesthesia, are painless and patients have no post operative problems. Vasectomy does not cause any loss in the male’s sexual ability but only arrests the discharge of sperm.

There are several methods of temporary birth control. Condoms are used by males to prevent sperms from fertilizing the ovum during intercourse. Intrauterine devices (Copper Ts) are small objects which can be placed by a doctor in the uterus so that the ovum cannot be implanted, even if fertilized. They do not disturb any functions in the woman’s life or work. Oral contraceptive tablets (pills) and injectable drugs are available that prevent sperms from fertilizing the ovum.

There are also traditional but less reliable methods of contraception such as abstinence of the sexual act during the fertile period of the women’s cycle and withdrawal during the sexual act.

Urbanization:

In 1975 only 27% of the people in the developing world lived in urban areas. By 2000 this had grown to 40% and by 2030 well informed estimates state that this will grow to 56%. The developed world is already highly urbanized with 75% of its population living in the urban sector.

Case study

Urban Environments

Nearly half the world's population now lives in urban areas. The high population density in these areas leads to serious environmental issues.

Today, more than 290 million people live in towns and cities in India. There were 23 metros in India in 1991, which grew to 40 by 2001.

Urban population growth is both due to migration of people to towns and cities from the rural sector in search of better job options as well as population growth within the city.

As a town grows into a city it not only spreads outwards into the surrounding agricultural land or natural areas such as forests, grasslands and wetlands but also grows skywards with high rise buildings. The town also loses its open spaces and green cover unless these are consciously preserved. This destroys the quality of life in the urban area.

Good urban planning is essential for rational landuse planning, for upgrading slum areas, improving water supply and drainage systems, providing adequate sanitation, developing effective waste water treatment plants and an efficient public transport system.

Unplanned and haphazard growth of urban complexes has serious environmental impacts. Increasing solid waste, improper garbage disposal and air and water pollution are frequent side effects of urban expansions.

While all these issues appear to be under the preview of local Municipal Corporations, better living conditions can only become a reality if every citizen plays an active role in managing the environment. This includes a variety of “Dos and Don’ts” that should become an integral part of our personal lives.

Apart from undertaking actions that support the environment every urban individual has the ability to influence a city’s management. He or she must see that the city’s natural green spaces, parks and gardens are maintained, river and water fronts are managed appropriately, roadside tree cover is maintained, hill slopes are afforested and used as open spaces and architectural and heritage sites are protected. Failure to do this leads to increasing urban problems which eventually destroys a city’s ability to maintain a healthy and happy lifestyle for its dwellers. All these aspects are closely linked to the population growth in the urban sector. In many cities growth outstrips the planner’s ability to respond to this in time for a variety of reasons.

Small urban centers too will grow rapidly during the next decades and several rural areas will require reclassification as urban centers. India’s urban areas will grow by a projected 297 million residents. In India people move to cities from rural areas in the hope of getting a better income. This is the ‘Pull’ factor. Poor opportunities in the rural sector thus stimulates migration to cities. Loss of agricultural land to urbanisation and industry, the inability of governments to sustainably develop the rural sector, and a lack of supporting infrastructure in rural areas, all push people from the agricultural and natural wilderness ecosystems into the urban sector. As our development strategies have focused attention mostly on rapid industrial development and relatively few development options are offered for the agricultural rural sector, a shift of population is inevitable

The pull factor of the urban centers is not only due to better job opportunities, but also better education, health care and relatively higher living standards. During the last few decades in India, improvements in the supply of clean water sanitation, waste management, education and health care has all been urban centric, even though the stated policy has been to support rural development. Thus in reality, development has lagged behind in the rural sector that is rapidly expanding in numbers,. For people living in wilderness areas in our forests and mountain regions, development has been most neglected. It is not appropriate to use the development methods used for other rural communities for tribal people who are dependent on collecting natural resources from the forests. A different pattern of development that is based on the sustainable extraction of resources from their own surroundings would satisfy their development aspirations. In general the growing human population in the rural sector will only opt to live where they are if they are given an equally satisfying lifestyle

Megacities – Over 10 million inhabitants. 1950 – there was only 1 – New York. 1975 – there were 5. 2001 – there were 15 (with Mumbai, Kolkata, and Delhi, being added to the list from India). 2015 – there will be 21 megacities.

Cities over 1 million in size: In 2000 there were 388 cities with more than 1 million inhabitants. By 2015 these will increase to 554, of which 75% are in developing countries

The wilderness – rural-urban linkage

The environmental stresses caused by urban individuals covers an 'ecological footprint' that goes far beyond what one expects. The urban sector affects the land at the fringes of the urban area and the areas from which the urban center pulls in agricultural and natural resources.

Urban centers occupy 2% of the worlds' land but use 75% of the industrial wood. About 60% of the world's water is used by urban areas of which half irrigates food crops for urban dwellers, and one third goes to industry and the rest is used for household use and drinking water.

The impact that urban dwellers have on the environment is not obvious to them as it happens at distant places which supports the urban ecosystem with resources from agricultural and even more remote wilderness ecosystems.

Urban poverty and the Environment The number of poor people living in urban areas is rapidly increasing. A third of the poor people in the world live in urban centers. These people live in hutments in urban slums and suffer from water shortages and unsanitary conditions. In most cases while a slum invariably has unhygenic surroundings, the dwellings themselves are kept relatively clean. It is the ‘common’ areas used by the community that lacks the infrastructure to maintain a hygienic environment.

During the 1990s countries that have experienced an economic crisis have found that poor urban dwellers have lost their jobs due to decreasing demands for goods, while food prices have risen. Well paid and consistent jobs are not as easily available in the urban centers at present as in the past few decades.

One billion urban people in the world live in inadequate housing, mostly in slum areas, the majority of which are temporary structures. However, low income groups that live in high rise buildings can also have high densities and live in poor unhygienic conditions in certain areas of cities. Illegal slums often develop on Government land, along railway tracks, on hill slopes, riverbanks, marshes, etc. that are unsuitable for formal urban development. On the riverbanks floods can render these poor people homeless. Adequate legal housing for the urban poor remains a serious environmental concern.

Urban poverty is even more serious than rural poverty, as unlike the rural sector, the urban poor have no direct access to natural resources such as relatively clean river water, fuelwood and non wood forest products. The urban poor can only depend on cash to buy the goods they need, while in the rural sector they can grow a substantial part of their own food. Living conditions for the urban poor are frequently worse than for rural poor. Both outdoor and indoorair pollution due to high levels of particulate matter and sulphur dioxide from industrial and vehicle emissions lead to high death rates from respiratory diseases. Most efforts are targeted at outdoor air pollution. Indoor air pollution due to the use of fuel wood, waste material, coal, etc. in ‘chulas’ is a major health issue. This can be reduced by using better designed ‘smokeless’ chulas, hoods and chimneys to remove indoor smoke.

With the growing urban population, a new crisis of unimaginable proportions will develop in the next few years. Crime rates, terrorism, unemployment, and serious environmental health related issues can be expected to escalate. This can only be altered by stabilizing population growth on a war footing.

 

Additional Literatures

POPULATION GROWTH AND VARIATIONS AMONG NATIONS

There are 5 main concepts that our students struggle with when learning about population growth and the relationship of population to geological resource use:

1.     overpopulation is a leading environmental problem,

2.     exponential population growth and development leads to faster depletion of resources,

3.     population grows exponentially,

4.     why population prediction is difficult,

5.     population is not evenly distributed throughout the world.

A leading environmental problem: Overpopulation

Students do not understand that overpopulation is the cause of many other environmental problems. To help students understand this, one of my colleagues asks her students to list three important local and global environmental issues as part of a survey on the first day of class. During this lecture, we will present overpopulation as the top environmental problem:

1.     Pollution (unspecified):14.7%

2.     Global warming:14.5%

3.     Air pollution:13.5%

4.     Habitat destruction:13.1%

5.     Resource depletion/degradation:11.8%

6.     Population growth/Overpopulation:7.9%

7.     Natural disasters:6.2%

8.     Water pollution:6.6%

9.     fossil fuels (oil spills/ANWR):6.0%

10.  Waste management:3.5%

11.  Miscellaneous (famine, poverty, ignorance, etc):2.3%

How many of these problems are the direct or indirect result of overpopulation? Would we have such a problem with the top three – pollution, global warming and habitat- if world population was not so large? Other than some of the natural disasters, most of these other environmental problems are due to overpopulation.

More people = More babies

Students may have a hard time understanding that population growth is controlled not only by birth and death rates but also by the present population. The mathematics of exponential growth govern the prediction of population growth. In some cases, you may want to point out that students may have heard of exponential growth in other contexts, such as compound interest or the spread of viral disease. The rate of population growth at any given time can be written:

where
N0 is the starting population;N is the population after a certain time, t , has elapsed,

r is the rate of natural increase expressed as a percentage (birth rate - death rate) and e is the constant 2.71828... (the base of natural logarithms).

A plot of this equation looks something like the plot on the right. Population grows exponentially - if the rate of natural increase (r) doesn't change. The variable r is controlled by human behavior as described below.

Essential to understanding the mathematics of population growth is the concept of doubling time. Doubling time is the time it takes for population to double and it is related to the rate of growth. When the population doubles, N = 2N0. Thus the equation becomes

ln 2/r = t

or 0.69/r = t; where r is the rate and t is the doubling time.

In many ways, it is similar to half-life. But instead of the time it takes for half the isotopes to decay, it is the time it takes for a known quantity to double.

"Birth control" was advanced as alternative to the then-fashionable terms "family limitation" and "voluntary motherhood." Family limitation referred to deliberate attempts by couples to end childbearing after the desired number of children had been born. Voluntary motherhood had been coined by feminists in the 1870s as a political critique of "involuntary motherhood" and expressing a desire for women's emancipation. Advocates for voluntary motherhood disapproved of contraception, arguing that women should only engage in sex for the purpose of procreation and advocated for periodic or permanent abstinence. In contrast the birth control movement advocated for contraception so as to permit sexual intercourse as desired without the risk of pregnancy. By emphasising "control" the birth control movement argued that women should have control over their reproduction and the movement had close ties to the feminist movement. Slogans such as "control over our own bodies" criticised male domination and demanded women's liberation, a connotation that is absent from family planning, population control and eugenics. Though in the 1980s birth control and population control organisations co-operated in demanding rights to contraception and abortion, with an increasing emphasis on "choice."

The societal acceptance of birth control required the separation of sex from procreation, making birth control a highly controversial subject in the 20th Century. Birth control has become a major theme in feminist politics who cited reproduction issues as examples of women's powerlessness to exercise their rights. In the 1960s and 1970s the birth control movement advocated for the legalisation of abortion and large scale education campaigns about contraception by governments. In a broader context birth control has become an arena for conflict between liberal and conservative values, raising questions about family, personal freedom, state intervention, religion in politics, sexual morality and social welfare.

The effectiveness of a birth control method is generally expressed by how many women become pregnant using the method in the first year of use. Thus, if 100 women use a method that has a 0 percent first-year failure rate, then 0 of the women should become pregnant during the first year of use. This equals 0 pregnancies per 100 woman-years, an alternative unit. Sometimes the effectiveness is expressed in lifetime failure rate, more commonly among methods with high effectiveness, such as vasectomy after the appropriate negative semen analysis.

The most effective methods in typical use are those that do not depend upon regular user action. Surgical sterilization, Depo-Provera, implants, and intrauterine devices (IUDs) all have first-year failure rates of less than one percent for perfect use. In reality, however, perfect use may not be the case, but still, sterilization, implants, and IUDs also have typical failure rates under one percent. The typical failure rate of Depo-Provera is disagreed upon, with figures ranging from less than one percent up to three percent.

Other methods may be highly effective if used consistently and correctly, but can have typical use first-year failure rates that are considerably higher due to incorrect or ineffective usage by the user. Hormonal contraceptive pills, patches or rings, fertility awareness methods, and the lactational amenorrhea method (LAM), if used strictly, have first-year (or for LAM, first-6-month) failure rates of less than 1%. In one survey, typical use first-year failure rates of hormonal contraceptive pills (and by extrapolation, patches or rings) were as high as five percent per year. Fertility awareness methods as a whole have typical use first-year failure rates as high as 25 percent per year; however, as stated above, perfect use of these methods reduces the first-year failure rate to less than 1%. Intrauterine devices (IUDs) were once associated with health risks, but most recent models of the IUD, including the ParaGard and Mirena, are both extremely safe and effective, and require very little maintenance. Condoms and cervical barriers such as the diaphragm have similar typical use first-year failure rates (14 and 20 percent, respectively), but perfect usage of the condom is more effective (three percent first-year failure vs six percent) and condoms have the additional feature of helping to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases such as the HIV virus. The withdrawal method, if used consistently and correctly, has a first-year failure rate of four percent. Due to the difficulty of consistently using withdrawal correctly, it has a typical use first-year failure rate of 19 percent, and is not recommended by some medical professionals. Combining two birth control methods, can increase their effectiveness to 95% or more for less effective methods. Using condoms with another birth control method is also one of the recommended methods of reducing risk of getting sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. This approach is one of the dual protection strategies

 

Fig 29.1 The Growth of Human Population can be Viewed in the Following Four Major Periods or Stages

Stage 1. An early period of hunters and gatherers

This period ranges between the first evolutions of humans on this planet to the beginning of agriculture. During this period, it is estimated that the total population was probably less than a million, population density was about 1person per 130-260 sq km in the most habitable areas, and the average rate of growth was perhaps less than 0.00011% per year.

Stage 2. Early, per-industrial agriculture

This period began sometime between 9,000 BC and 6,000 BC and lasted approximately until the 16th century AD. The first major increase in population came during this period. The total human population of the world was approximately 100 million by 1AD that further increased to about 500 million by 1600 AD. The population density increased greatly to about 1 or 2 people per sq km or even more. The average rate of growth was probably about 0.03%.

Stage 3. The age of industrial revolution

The second and much more rapid increase in population started about 400 years ago with the industrial revolution associated with the advances in medicines and health care. Experts are of the opinion that Renaissance in Europe, (beginning about 1600 AD) marks the transition from agricultural to liberate societies, when medical care and sanitation were factors responsible in reducing the death rate. The total human population of about 900 million in 1800 AD almost doubled in the next century and again doubled to approximately 3 billion by 1960. The average rate of growth by 1600 AD was about 0.1% per year, which increased about one-tenth of a percent every 50 years until 1950. The main reasons of this rapid increase in population were discovery of the causes of diseases, invention of vaccines, improvement in sanitation, and advances in agriculture that led to a great increase in the production of food, shelter and clothing.

Stage 4. The modern era

Though the rate of population growth has slowed down in developed countries, but population still continues to increase rapidly in many parts of the world, particularly developing countries. At mid 2002, the world population stood at 6.215 billion. The average rate of growth reached 2% in the middle of the 20th century and has declined to 1.3% in 2002 AD. According to projections, the global population will be Approximately 8 billion by 2025 and 10 billion by 2050 AD.

According to World Bank projections, the world population may stabilize between 10.1 to 12.5 billions. Developed countries would only increase from 1.2 billion today to 1.9 billion, but developing countries would increase from 5 billion to 9.6 billion. In these projections, the developing countries using by 95%

29.2 Variation of Population Among Nations

The distribution of world population densities show that while the great majority of the land surface is sparsely or moderately populated, but some limited areas are densely populated. The densely populated areas include Western Europe, the Indian subcontinent, the plains and river valleys of China, and north-eastern USA. High concentrations of people are also found in some relatively smaller areas, for example—the Nile valley of Egypt, the Islands of Java in Indonesia and the Southern part of Japan.

In terms of continents and countries, the world’s population is very ill-balanced. More than half of the world’s people live in Asia (approximately 3.7 billion), which accounts for only one-fifth of the world’s land area; while North, Central and South America together occupying more than a quarter of the land surface, have only one-fifth of the population (1.3 billion). The African continent also accounts for a quarter of the land surface but has just over one-eighth (840 million) of the world population. On the other hand, Europe whose area is only one twenty-fifth of the total has about one-ninth (729 million) of the world’s people.

The distribution within the continents is also uneven. In Asia, China alone, with about 1.29 billion people, accounts for one-third Asian and one-fifth of the world population. The Indian subcontinent has a further 1.3 billion people—India, 1.05 billion; Pakistan, 143.5 million; Bangladesh, 133.6 million; Nepal , 23.9 million; Sri Lanka , 18.9 million; Bhutan, 0.9 million; and Maldives, 0.3 million. In Europe too, the population is an evenly distributed. Far less people live in Northern European countries than in other European countries .The most populous European countries are Russia (143.5 million), Germany (82.4 million), United Kingdom (60.2 million), France (59.5 million); Italy (58.1 million), Ukraine (48.2 million), Spain (41.3 million) and Poland (38.6 million). In Africa and Americas people are for the most part spread very thinly across the land, leaving large sections such as Northern Canada, Southwest USA, the Sahara desert and the Amazon forest practically uninhabited.

29.2.1 Factors discouraging settlement

They are usually climatic or relief factors. The main factors are—cold, altitude, heat, drought, poor soils, inaccessibility, etc.

29.2.2 Factors encouraging settlements

They are –good land, flat or undulating terrain, the existence of mineral resources, a good climate suitable for a wide range of crops or a less equable climate suitable to the cultivation of specialized crops which have a good market, etc. Other factors include extension of roads, railways and other modes of transportation.

29.3 Population Explosion

The rapid growth of population is perhaps the most obvious factor affecting the present and future national and regional development, but it is by no means the only population problem in the world today. The main problem is that of ‘Population Explosion’.

Population explosion doesn’t mean overpopulation or population density. Infact, overpopulation or population density is not the major problem. The problem arises when the economic developments fails to maintain pace with population growth. So the most important factors regarding population are how fast population is growing; and most important is where it is growing. For example, Japan has a high population density but it ranked first on the human development index formulated by U.N.D.P. On the other hand low population density areas of Africa or S. America are unable to support the existing population. Thus, the size, distribution and structure of the population within a country must be viewed in relation to its natural resources and the techniques of production used by its population. The extent to which they are used and the way in which they are utilized determine whether an area/country is under-or over-populated and hence witnessing population explosion or not. A country is said to have an “optimum population” so long as the number of people is in balance with the available resources of the country. If in a country the process of industrialization accompanied by urbanization is not fast and education is not widespread, then this is really a grave situation called as Population Explosion.

29.3.1 Effects of population explosion

The effect of population explosion is numerous with far reaching consequences. Some of them are enumerated as under:

·         Unemployment,

·         Low living standard of people,

·         Hindrance in the process of development of economy

·         Pressure on agriculture land,

·         Low per capital income,

·         Lack of basic amenities like water supply and sanitation, education, health, etc.,

·         High crime rate

·         Environmental damage,

·         Migration to urban area in search of job,

·         Energy crisis,

·         Overcrowding of cities leading to development of slums.

29.3.2 Population explosion in Indian context

The population explosion, though a worldwide phenomenon, poses a serious threat to India as it has to maintain 16.9% of world’s population on only 2.4%of the world’s area. The present growth rate of 1.7% is much higher than the world population growth rate of 1.3%, which is of great concern.
In order to overcome this problem of population explosion, a sound Population Policy is required with the following objectives:

1.     Quick economic development and raising the per capital income.

2.     Significant reduction in birth rate, which is more fundamental and important than the first, by providing legal and fiscal motivations like raising age of marriage, legalization abortion etc.

3.     The planning of population must not aim merely at controlling the rate of multiplication but it should also include the improvement of the quality of the population as well by providing better facilities in education, health, etc.

4.     (iv) The death rate should be brought down further, as high death rate results in waste of human energy and resources.

5.     Integrating population planning with economic planning.

We are thus facing a population explosion of crisis dimensions which has largely diluted the fruits of the remarkable economic progress that we have made over the last few decades. It is clear that simply to wait for education and economic development to bring about a desirable drop in fertility is not a practical solution. The time factor is so pressing and the population growth so formidable that we have to get out of this vicious circle through a direct assault upon the population problem as a national commitment.

29.3.3 Methods of birth control

The effectiveness of a birth control method is generally expressed by how many women become pregnant using the method in the first year of use. Thus, if 100 women use a method that has a 0 percent first-year failure rate, then 0 of the women should become pregnant during the first year of use. This equals 0 pregnancies per 100 woman-years, an alternative unit.

The most effective methods in typical use are those that do not depend upon regular user action.

a) Surgical sterilization, Depo-Provera, implants, and intrauterine devices (IUDs) all have first-year failure rates of less than one percent for perfect use. In reality, however, perfect use may not be the case, but still, sterilization, implants, and IUDs also have typical failure rates under one percent. The typical failure rate of Depo-Provera is disagreed upon, with figures ranging from less than one percent up to three percent.

b) Other methods may be highly effective if used consistently and correctly, but can have typical use first-year failure rates that are considerably higher due to incorrect or ineffective usage by the user. Hormonal contraceptive pills, patches or rings, fertility awareness methods, and the lactational amenorrhea method (LAM), if used strictly, have first-year (or for LAM, first-6-month) failure rates of less than 1%. In one survey, typical use first-year failure rates of hormonal contraceptive pills (and by extrapolation, patches or rings) were as high as five percent per year. Fertility awareness methods as a whole have typical use first-year failure rates as high as 25 percent per year; however, as stated above, perfect use of these methods reduces the first-year failure rate to less than 1%. Intrauterine devices (IUDs) were once associated with health risks, but most recent models of the IUD, including the ParaGard and Mirena, are both extremely safe and effective, and require very little maintenance.

c) Condoms and cervical barriers such as the diaphragm have similar typical use first-year failure rates (14 and 20 percent, respectively), but perfect usage of the condom is more effective (three percent first-year failure vs six percent) and condoms have the additional feature of helping to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases such as the HIV virus. The withdrawal method, if used consistently and correctly, has a first-year failure rate of four percent. Due to the difficulty of consistently using withdrawal correctly, it has a typical use first-year failure rate of 19 percent, and is not recommended by some medical professionals.

d) Combining two birth control methods, can increase their effectiveness to 95% or more for less effective methods. Using condoms with another birth control method is also one of the recommended methods of reducing risk of getting sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. This approach is one of the dual protection strategies.

29.4 Aim of ‘Family Welfare Programme’

In the year 1952, India launched a nation-wide family planning programme making it the first country in the world to do so. Unfortunately, family planning in India is associated with numerous misconceptions—one of them is its strong association in the minds of people with sterilization, while others equate it with birth control. The recognisation of its ‘welfare concept’ came only when the family planning programme was named as ‘Family Welfare Programme’ in the year 1977. The concept of welfare is very comprehensive and is basically related to quality of life. The Family Welfare Programme aims at achieving a higher end- that is, to improve the quality of life of the people.

Although the performance of the programme was low during 1977-78, but it was a good year in the sense that it moved into new healthier directions. The 42nd Amendment of the Constitution has made “Population Control and Family Planning” a concurrent subject. The acceptance of the programme is now purely on voluntary basis. The launching of the Rural Health Scheme in 1977 and the involvement of the local people (e.g., trained Dais and Opinion leaders) in the family welfare programmes at the gross-root level were aimed at accelerating the pace of progress of the programme. India was a signatory to the Alma Ata Declaration, 1978. The acceptance of the primary health care approach to the achievement of ‘Health For All by 2000 AD’ led to the formulation of a ‘National Health Policy’ in 1982. The policy laid down the long-term demographic goal of Net Reproduction Rate (NRR)=1 by the year 2000-which implies a 2-child family norm-through the attainment of a birth rate of 21 and a death rate of 9 per thousand population, and a couple protection rate of 60% by the year 2000. The successive Five Year Plans were accordingly set to achieve these goals. The Government of India envolved a more detailed and comprehensive National Population Policy in 1986, to promote it on a voluntary basis as a ‘movement of the people, by the people, for the people’. It has given family planning the broadest possible dimensions which include not only health and family welfare but also child survival, women’s status and employment, literacy and education, socio-economic development and anti-poverty programmes.

The current approach in favour today is one of involvement and integration. The idea is to value those who stand to benefit from the programme and integrate the various attempts to propagate the same. Family Welfare Programme with such an approach can reduce the population growth to more manageable levels. Presently, the Family Welfare Programme seeks to promote on a voluntary basis, responsible and Planned Parenthood with one child norm, male or female, through independent choice of family welfare methods best suited to acceptors.

29.4.1 Problems of family welfare programme

The two major problem of Family Welfare Programme are:

1. Generally women are the major targets of family planning programmes .according to National Family Health Survey, the most widely used method of family planning in India is female sterilization. This shows that family planning has largely remained a women-centered programme. Due to reluctance of men to use permanent methods, women are forced to accept family planning methods. Gender specificity or gender subordination has to be eliminated in the approach in the family planning programmes as far as possible.

2. The imbalance in the sex ratio (female/1000 male) across the nation, which is 933, is another worrisome factor. In states like Haryana (SR=861), Punjab (SR=874), U.P. (S.R=898), Delhi (SR=821), Sikkim (SR=875) and others, the girl-child is being discriminated against even before birth. The instance of female infanticide in these and other states has brought down the sex ratio to an all time low. Though there is a law banning the determination of the sex of the child in the womb, unscrupulous medical practitioners and short-sighted parents connive to prevent the birth of female children. There is, thus, an urgent need to prevent the misuse of technology through education and awareness.