Vital Statistics

Read the following passage and answer the questions from 11 to 15: Population Growth Population growth is a serious issue not only in India but all over the World. India is second largest country after China. It is estimated by 2035 India is going to surpass China and becoming number one, if population growth goes unchecked. Demography is the science of population. It includes mortality, fertility and migration as three decisive components of population growth. Its main concerns are the measurements and discovery of uniformities in the basic processes of human birth, death, population movement and population growth. Prof. Malthus, well known thinker on the issue of population, suggested two basic postulates: (i) Food is necessary for the existence of man and (ii) Passion between the sexes is necessary. According to him, population if goes unchecked increases in a geometric ratio (1, 2, 4, 8, ...) while the subsistence increases only in an arithmetic ratio (1, 2, 3, 4, ...). He advocated two checks on population i.e. positive checks and preventive checks. Population variables are of two kinds - stock and flow. The important source of information is national censuses which is carried out in India after every ten years. Population enumeration is due in 2021. This document is considered as primary which reflects on the trends of growth, rate of fertility, rate of mortality, migration, rural - urban population, sex ratio, population of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes etc. Needless to say, it helps to the policy planners and demographers to adopt appropriate policy measures to handle the population growth. Taking into account the unchecked growth of the population the policy instituted by the government of India to influence at least one of the demographic components of population change. Population policy seeks to enhance the welfare of the society collectively. An effective population policy rests upon knowledge about the demographic trends, its likely future course, and its causes and consequences. In short population policy promotes small family norms, delayed marriage for girls, control the spread of communicable diseases, reduce infant mortality rate, immunization programmes for children etc. All these measures, if implemented properly, will definitely bring down the growth of population.