The missing factor

Shiban  Khaibri
On careful perusal of the election manifestos of the political parties, whether the two largest national Parties, the Congress and the BJP,  or the  regional Parties  or the very recent  new political experiment called the Aam Aadmi Party, one is appalled to see one most important factor completely missing in all  such policy papers conventionally put forth at the sensitive time  of electing a new Lok Sabha and that is the policy on Population growth rather a policy to check the population explosion from getting further worse in relation to  respective Parties promising all round economic development.  It is intriguing as to why such a stoic silence is chosen by all the Parties on such a sensitive national issue which has a direct bearing on the overall economic development of our country. In other words, the menace of overpopulation and demographic changes in  a country like ours has  found no mention even in the form of  a passing reference in the Political Parties’  agenda  for the next five years , if not more. Needless to add,  in 1948-49, with a population of nearly  39 crore , we used to debate and discuss about the problem of over population in our country. When, now, we have crossed a worrisome figure of 125 crore with basic natural resources like water, forests, land, oil reserves and the like being under tremendous pressure with horrifying prospective effects on society and diluting, if not offsetting a rapid economic growth, should we close our eyes to the menace which is striking at the very roots of our economic achievements or clouding the same when its success is measured in terms of it reaching all and sundry.
Policies need to be incorporated in our economic development strategies to arrest on a continuous basis, the trend of high fertility rates or the baby boom as we call it in easy parlance. Rapid population growth adversely affects the performance of the economy, more so when a country is still struggling to provide a well being of its people, the large groups of which are in the middle economic class, slightly above the poverty line and millions below it. The tall claims of some leaders from the Congress party that “We have pulled up from the below poverty line a group of 14 crore people during the last 10 years”  holds no ground  without mentioning how many more slipped into it, let alone cross check the claims of “pulling out from” and the factors and the standard of which yard stick was applied to put forth such a tall claim.
The argument that improvements in standard of living, better education, better health etc; could ultimately result in lowering of birth rate may be an idealistic situation when we are still struggling even to ensure a  hunger free society and Congress Party under compulsions of the elections got an Act hurriedly passed in the Parliament. It is another thing whether we have sufficient funds to make the “high feat” of the Congress authored scheme look real on ground. In other words, stage of good standards of living and better health and education et- al  was going to take many decades with the current level of economic growth in India to make it possible to  families to voluntarily adopt a  two children norm  per couple. Till then, on the other hand, the same trend in population growth was bound to continue to cross a 200 crore and even more.
There is broad consensus among the Development Economists the world over that rapid population growth harmed the prospects for development advocating for strong Government policies to reduce population growth rates in order to achieve sustained economic growth.  We take, for example, the problem of housing for the poor or those needing shelter in our country, the number of which is increasing every year while the land supply being inelastic continues to be under tremendous pressure threatening even the agricultural land getting melted in the scramble for housing. The number of juggies alone as per a rough estimate is above the 95 million mark in some big  cities including metropolitan cities alone in which are not  included those who are inadequately housed or are otherwise without owning a dwelling of their own. The question of providing safe drinking water through taps is also  directly linked to the population growth when in the next two decades our country  is slated  to be worst affected in terms of availability in case  the Government does not look seriously into the issue and make harvesting of rain water a national mission.  How much additional land are we required to acquire to construct houses annually and what is the clear cut policy of the Government over it is not specified excepting patch working , vote catching unplanned and inconsistent approaches and responses  by launching of various “Aavas yojnas”, a scenario which  is going to cast an economic gloom in the very near future.
What precisely is our population policy? Why is the issue of over population looked at with a prism of just a formality and nothing beyond that? Why is then such an important economic ingredient missing in electoral manifestos when most of the Political Parties, more so the big two, are conveniently silent on the issue especially when they promise the sky, the moon, the stars and resolution of unemployment, price rise, inflation, housing problems etc only “in case our party is voted to power”. The interesting part of the story is that a trend has been set and delineated by the Congress Party especially post  Late Sanjay Gandhi’s  way of looking at the problem of checking rapid population growth and that trend has to be followed by other parties as well, all for that allurement of vote. It has been emphatically stressed that no Governmental intervention to control the rapid population growth would be there as that would “alienate some groups of the society being inconsistent with their beliefs”. Any one venturing in the interests of economic development suggesting a firm Government policy is at once dubbed as “divisive”, “non- secular  and communal” in the same way as   economic backwardness alone in the society is suggested by many  to be considered as the guiding eligibility criteria for  amelioration of neglect, poverty and backwardness. The tag of being monopolistically secular with no one else as much, as claimed by the Congress Party, perhaps, has contained other parties from touching the population issue in their manifestos as votes and not the welfare of voters are kept in consideration. This is a very sad state of affairs of our polity.
The other very important issue not touched in the manifestos is the horrendous dragon of the Naxal – Maosit armed movement which is attaining dangerous proportions but continues to be supported by many “intellectuals” and even AAP leaders holding  a different view of “because their problems are not solved”. Those who care a pittance for the country’s democratic set up, the constitution, the integrity of the country and the precious lives of our own security personnel are patronized by many so called intellectuals, besides certain political leaders having soft corner for them. Another very important issue not touched by any Political Party is about electoral reforms because of the “common interest” involved. Last but not the least, the question about illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and their deporting is also left at “as it is where it is” and any bold stand on it is again fraught with being dubbed as “non-secular”, “divisive”, “Sub ko sath nahin  leney wale” and the like. The big question is then who really cares for India and all Indians?

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