Impact of Over-Population on Economic Growth & Development

Impact of Over-Population on Economic Growth & Development

ILE Legal Blog

12 Jan, 2023

Impact of Over-Population on Economic Growth & Development

Authors – Madhur & Shreshth Ghai, Students of Kirit P. Mehta School of Law (KPMSOL) of SVKM’s NMIMS Mumbai

ABSTRACT

Since at least 1798, when Thomas Malthus famously asserted that population expansion would reduce living standards in the long term, the link between population growth and economic progress has been a recurring issue in economic research. The premise was simple: given a finite amount of land, population increase would eventually restrict the amount of resources that each individual could use, leading to sickness, starvation, and war. India is the world’s second most populous country. By 2024, India is expected to be the world’s most populous country. In 2017, its population growth rate was 1.13 percent, placing it 112th in the world. In 2020, the average age of an Indian is predicted to be 29 years. The means and ends of economic development are both population. They can be a benefit if they are strong enough, but they can also be a liability if they are too strong. In India, population has exceeded the optimum level and has become a liability. As a result, India’s population growth has proven to be a major impediment to economic planning and progress.

INTRODUCTION

India’s population accounts for 17.99 percent of the world’s total population, implying that one out of every six persons on the planet lives in India. India is the world’s second most populous country, and it is expected to overtake China’s population in the coming years. By 2024, India is expected to be the world’s most populous country. In 2017, it ranked 112th in the world with a population growth rate of 1.13 percent. More than half of the Indian population is under the age of 25, and more than half is under the age of 35. In 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, with a dependency ratio of just over 0.4. People are both the means and the ends of economic progress. They can be a benefit if they’re strong enough, but they can also be a liability if they’re too strong. In India, population has exceeded the optimum level and has become a liability. As a result, India’s population growth has proven to be a major impediment to economic planning and progress. In India, population is both a means and an aim to economic growth. It can be an asset if it’s strong enough, but it can also be a problem if it’s too strong. In India, population has exceeded the optimum level and has become a liability. As a result, India’s overpopulation problem has proven to be a significant impediment to economic planning and progress. India’s current population accounts for 17% of the world’s total population. Furthermore, all of these people are dispersed over 3.28 million square kilometres of our geographical area. With a population of 166 million people, Uttar Pradesh is India’s most populous state, according to the 2001 Census. States like Sikkim and Lakshadweep, on the other hand, have the smallest populations, with Sikkim’s population of 0.5 million and Lakshadweep’s population of barely 60,000. Furthermore, India’s population is divided into five major states: Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh, which account for roughly half of the country’s population. Rajasthan is India’s largest state by area, yet its population accounts for only 5.5 percent of the country’s total.

DEFINING OVER-POPULATION:

Overpopulation occurs when the human population grows to a level that exceeds the ecological setting’s carrying capacity. People may outnumber available vital supplies for survival in an overcrowded environment, such as transportation, water, housing, food, or social facilities. This frequently contributes to environmental degradation, a decline in quality of life, or even population breakup.

DEFINING ECONOMIC GROWTH:

Economic growth is defined as an increase or improvement in the inflation-adjusted market value of an economy’s goods and services through time. Statisticians commonly use the percent rate of rise in real gross domestic product, or real GDP, to measure such growth.

India, the world’s largest democratic country, spans 2.4 percent of the globe’s land area and is home to 16 percent of the world’s population. Every year, approximately 1.6 crore people are added to the country’s population. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the world’s population grows by roughly 78 million people every year, with India accounting for about one-fifth of that expansion. According to the 2011 census, India’s population has grown to 1.2 billion people, with 624 million men and 587 million women.

Since the 2001 census, there has been a growth of 181 million people, which is approximately equal to the population of Brazil. One of the most contentious issues on the planet is the impact of population growth on economic progress. There are numerous hypotheses that suggest that an increase in population has a negative impact on a country’s economic growth and development.

In several ways, population increase impedes economic development:

OVERUSE OF NATURAL RESOURCES:

Rapid population increase causes the country’s natural resources to be overused. This is especially true in areas where the majority of people rely on agriculture for a living. As the world’s population grows, agricultural holdings become smaller and less profitable to cultivate. There is no way to increase farm production by adding extra acreage to the mix. As a result, many families are still living in poverty. In fact, India’s population has expanded from 102.7 crores in 2001 to 121.01 crores in 2011, resulting in land misuse and putting future generations’ wellbeing at risk

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT:

In developing countries such as India, the majority of people reside in rural areas. Agriculture is their primary source of income. As a result, the land man ratio is spread as the population grows. Because land supply is inelastic, population pressure on land rises. It contributes to hidden unemployment and lowers per capita productivity even more. As the number of landless workers grows, so does their pay. As a result, poor per capita productivity6

affects people’s willingness to save and invest. As a result, it is unable to apply updated technologies or make other modifications to the land. Agriculture’s capital formation suffers, and the economy sinks to subsistence levels. Due to a severe shortage of food goods, the problem of feeding a growing population has become more critical.

CAPITAL FORMATION:

Population growth stifles capital formation. As the population grows, the available revenue per capita decreases. People are being asked to feed more children with the same amount of money they have. It means greater consumer spending and, as a result, a further drop in already low savings and, as a result, a drop in investment. A rapidly rising population, on the other hand, forces individuals to adopt low-level technology, which further slows capital development by reducing earnings, savings, and investment.

EMPLOYMENT:

A fast growing population causes huge unemployment and underemployment in the economy. The percentage of workers to the overall population rises as the population grows. However, job expansion is impossible without supplementary resources. As a result of the increased labour force, unemployment and underemployment are on the rise. Rapid population growth affects income, savings, and investment. As a result, capital development is slowed and work opportunities are limited, leading to an increase in unemployment.

  • According to the 2011 census, India’s population was 1.21 billion (121 crores), second only to China in the world. Despite occupying only 2.4 percent of the world’s surface area, India is home to more than 17.5 percent of the world’s people.
  • A review of census data over the last four decades reveals a discernible decrease in the population’s growth rate: Despite the fact that India’s population has grown from 36 million in 1951 to 121 million in 2011, both fertility and mortality have decreased significantly.
  • According to estimates from the Sample Registration System, the crude birth rate, which was 40.8 per 1000 in 1951, has dropped to 20.4 in 2016. (SRS).

CONCLUSION

The above analysis shows that excessive population growth has delayed the rate of economic progress in developing countries. My hypothesis that population growth is a development limitation holds true based on the foregoing rationale. It has been discovered that the task of incorporating the work force into productive activities is becoming increasingly challenging due to the rapidly rising population. In developing countries, a substantial rise in population is more of a problem than an asset. Increased demand for agricultural land, firewood, and residential units, among other things, results in deforestation, which has a negative impact on soil fertility, floods, and climate change. The vast size of the population and its rapid rate of expansion, it may be assumed, raises consumption needs. This boosts spending on goods and services. As a result, the saving rate and capital formation do not increase significantly. The fast-growing population consumes a portion of the resources mobilised by such economies. Despite this conclusion, I believe that the relationship between population growth and economic development can be beneficial only if increasing population is proportionate to available resources in the country, and resources are exploited to their full potential, effectively and efficiently by skilled, talented human resources in countries such as India.

REFERENCE

  • Sibe, J. P., Chiatchoua, C., & Megne, M. N. (n.d.). The Long Run Relationship between Population Growth and Economic Growth: a Panel Data Analysis of 30 of the most Populated Countries of the World. The Long Run Relationship between Population Growth and Economic Growth: A Panel Data Analysis of 30 of the Most Populated Countries of the World; www.redalyc.org. Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://www.redalyc.org/journal/413/41345703009/html/

Download Author Certificate

Download Co-Author Certificate