Population Explosion 593

Population ExplosionHow can South Asia’s population growth be managed?

Main Ideas• Explosive population growth

in South Asia has contributed

to social and economic ills in

the region.

• Education is key to

controlling population growth

and improving the quality of

life in South Asia.

Places & Termsbasic necessities

illiteracy

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A HUMAN PERSPECTIVE On May 11, 2000, at 5:05 A.M., a baby girlwas born in a New Delhi hospital. Her parents named her Astha, whichmeans “faith” in the Hindi language. Ordinarily, Astha’s birth would nothave made news. After all, an estimated 42,000 babies are born in Indiaevery day—15,330,000 each year. Astha, however, was special. With thischild’s birth, the population of India officially hit 1 billion. It was thesecond country to reach a billion in population; China was the first.

Growing PainsIndia’s milestone was a mixed blessing. Its population at the beginningof the 21st century is growing so quickly that many of its citizens lacklife’s basic necessities—food, clothing, and shelter. The question forIndia, and for South Asia as a whole, is how to manage populationgrowth so that economic development can continue.

POPULATION GROWS When India gained its independence fromBritain in 1947, the population stood at 300 million. By 2000, the popu-lation had more than tripled. India’s population is so large that even anannual growth rate of less than 2 percent is producing a populationexplosion. Unless that growth slows down, in 2045, India will be home tomore than 1.5 billion people—all living in a land about one-third the sizeof the United States. India will be the most populous country in theworld, surpassing China.

India is not alone in its sky-rocketing population. In fact, ofthe 10 most populous countries inthe world in 1998, three werelocated in South Asia: India,Pakistan, and Bangladesh. SouthAsia is home to 22 percent of theworld’s population. But these peo-ple live on less than 3 percent ofthe world’s land area.

INADEQUATE RESOURCES AsSouth Asia’s population hasincreased, regional governmentshave found it more and more dif-ficult to meet the needs of theirpeople. Widespread poverty andilliteracy, the inability to read or

REGION The homeless poor

are a common sight in many

of India’s large cities, such

as Mumbai, pictured below.

What might be some waysin which the homelesscan be helped?

The Voyageur Experiencein World Geography

India: Population and Resources

Bay ofBengal

INDIANOCEAN

TAMILNADU

ANDHRAPRADESH

KARNATAKA

GOA

MAHARASHTRA

MADHYA PRADESH

UTTARPRADESH

HIMACHALPRADESH

ORISSA

BIHAR

JAMMU ANDKASHMIR

PUNJAB

WESTBENGAL

RAJASTHAN

GUJARAT

KERALAPersons

persq mi

Personspersq km

More than 1,000500–1,000

250–500125–250

Less than 125

More than 400200–400100–20050–100Less than 50

Source: 1994 Population estimate from Statesman's Yearbook, 2001.

*Not all 25 states are labeled.

0

0 250 500 kilometers

250 500 miles

Two-Point Equidistant Projection

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594 CHAPTER 26

write, have left millions without hope that their lives would improve. Poorsanitation and the lack of health education have led to outbreaks of dis-ease, which have overwhelmed the region’s limited health care systems.

Officials estimate that in order to keep pace with population growth,India will have to do the following every year: build 127,000 new vil-lage schools, hire nearly 400,000 new teachers, construct 2.5 millionnew homes, create 4 million new jobs, and produce an additional 6 mil-lion tons of food.

Managing Population GrowthSouth Asia has struggled for decades to find solutions to its populationexplosion. But efforts have met with only limited success.

SMALLER FAMILIES Today, India spends much of its nearly $1 billionannual health-care budget encouraging Indians to have smaller families.“Let’s have small families for a stronger India” is one of the slogans ofthe campaign. For many reasons, however, these programs have hadonly limited success. Indian women usually marry before age 18 andstart having babies early. Also, for the very poor, children are a source ofincome. They can beg for money in the streets as early as their thirdbirthday and can work the fields not too many years later.

For many Indians, children represent security in old age. The morechildren a family has, the more likely someone will be around to takecare of the parents when they are elderly. Also, the infant mortality rate

Seeing PatternsHow might

smaller families

affect India’s

economic

development?

Population Density in Indian States

SKILLBUILDER: Interpreting GraphsMAKING COMPARISONS In about what year will India

surpass China as the country with the largest population?

ANALYZING DATA Which country is projected to grow at about

a rate of 50 million persons every 20 years?

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

205020302010199019701950

Population Growth

Mill

ions

of P

eopl

e

*Estimated Figures

SOURCE: World Population Prospects; The 1998 Revision

United States

India

China

Population Explosion 595

HUMAN-ENVIRONMENTINTERACTION The

rural poor build settle-

ments on unused land

in many cities, such as

these in Ahmadabad,

India.

Why might the ruralpoor be attracted tourban areas?

is very high in South Asia—around75 per 1,000 live births compared to7 per 1,000 in the United States. As aresult, parents try to have many chil-dren to ensure that at least some willreach adulthood.

EDUCATION IS A KEY Many factorsthat affect population growth can bechanged through education. How-ever, South Asia’s governments havea difficult task ahead of thembecause education funds are limited.For example, India spends less than$6 per pupil annually on primaryand secondary education. (Only asmall fraction of this sum is spenton girls.) By contrast, annual perpupil spending on education in theUnited States is $6,320—more than1,000 times as much.

Education is essential to break the cycle of poverty and provideSouth Asians with the means to raise their standard of living. It alsohelps to improve the status of females by giving them job opportunitiesoutside the home. Better health education also can reduce the need forlarge families by ensuring that more babies reach adulthood. The futuredevelopment of South Asia depends on the success of such efforts tocontrol population growth.

In the next section, you will learn how the people of South Asia arecoping with another problem—the region’s extreme weather.

Background

Statistics for 1997-

l998 showed that

about 85 percent

of Indian boys

aged 6 to 12 are in

school, compared

to about 70

percent of girls.

Places & TermsExplain the importance

of each of the following

terms and places.

• basic necessities

• illiteracy

Taking Notes PLACE Review the notes you took

for this section.

• How much did India’s population

grow in the second half of the

20th century?

• If this growth rate continues, what

will India’s population be in 2045?

Main Ideas a. Why is the size of India’s

population a problem?

b. How has the government

of India addressed

population issues?

c. Why have government

programs had mixed

success?

Geographic ThinkingMaking Inferences How

does the population density

in India compare to that in

the United States? Thinkabout:

• population size

• territorial size

MAKING COMPARISONS Carry out further research focused on comparing 20th-century

population growth in a city in India and one in the United States. Use the data that you gather

to create a line graph that compares population growth in these two cities.

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Causes Effects

Issue 1:Population

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