According to a report on the outlook of world population of the United Nations, in the year 2023, the population of India will exceed that of China. While the growing population opens the doors of possibilities with it, it also brings a mountain of challenges. The demographic division of India is now in India’s favor and it will remain in India’s favor till the year 2041.
If proper skills are provided to the increased population, then it will create a resource for India which will give India a step towards becoming a super power. India today has about 65 percent of the youth population and this population is the most suitable population to do any work.
However, with the increasing population, many problems will also come to the fore. The biggest problem is to convert them into skilled population. Actually India is a developing country and here still a large section is untouched by education, especially the socially backward section of the society. That is why Ambedkar ji while addressing these communities also says-
“Education is the milk of a lioness. Whoever drinks it will roar.”
Along with this there is also a class which is very backward economically. It is very important to educate them too only then they will be able to join the mainstream of development. The second biggest challenge after education is to provide them with the appropriate skills. In the absence of suitable skills, this population will be unable to hold the necessary qualifications for employment. After this, unemployment will increase continuously in the country.
Rising unemployment not only brings with it the vicious cycle of poverty but also becomes an inevitable vehicle for generational poverty. Rising poverty not only compresses the standard of living in the country, but also problems like hunger come in the country. The country, which has been suffering from these problems for a long time, joins the countries of the third line of the world.
Now if India has to deal with these problems, then India will first have to include senior and old people in its population policy. India’s Population Policy, 2000 was suitable for family planning. Now the need is to make it compatible with the weights.
Since the present situation of Japan-China will have to face the same situation during the year 2041-2050. So India has to prepare itself for those situations from now on. India has to learn from China’s ‘one child policy’ and their implications.
In fact, the population of children and youth in China has come down significantly. That is why China has brought a new policy. Under this now a mother can give birth to 2-3 children there. India will also have to make its population policy in such a way that the population of India should never become an empty population. India still needs to invest a lot on education, skills. Along with this, family planning based public utility policies will have to be made. If these things are taken care of in the new population policy, then India will really move towards a country with efficient manpower which will eventually include India in the line of developed country.
