Overpopulation is a major problem to some countries in the World today.
The term is defined as a condition where an organism’s numbers exceed the carry
ing capacity of its habitat. Overpopulation leads to crowded living spaces, a finite amount of jobs, and hunger problems. The mass amount of people creates many problems for the governments who undergo this problem. Examples of two countries who go through this are China and India. China is home too nearly 1.25 billion people today. Every year, China’s numbers
increase by 12-13 million people. The annual population exceeds that of Ohio, Illinois, or Pennsylvania. India’s inhabitants are up to as much as 1.15 billion following closely behind China. Reasons for these overwhelming numbers have to do with their rural lands, great agriculture, religious reasons, and ancestral reasons. But are these problems being handled with to their full extent? Are China and India’s governments really doing all they can to stop this crisis?
In China, the problem started around 1949. From then on the population of China has grown substantially throughout the years. From 1953 to 1964, China’s population growth added nearly 112,000,000 people while the death rates were falling and the birth rates were remaining high. But from 1958-1961, the country went through an agricultural downfall, which resulted in a shortage of food. This unfortunately led to 20,000,000 deaths. The reason there was no real panic is because they were handling the rise in human population well for the outrageous numbers coming in. But it did raise thought and questioning that soon led to a drastic solution for the Chinese government. The 1970’s brought attention upon the increases in population to the “po
pulation planners” and politicians to try and reduce the birth rate and family sizes. The solution that they felt strongly with in the end is known as the One-Child Policy. This policy is “the population control policy of the People’s Republic of China. And the People’s Republic of China is commonly known as China. The One-child policy “restricts the number of children married couples can have to one, although it allows exemptions for several cases, including couples, ethnic minorities, and parents without any siblings.” Statistically this policy worked very well, but the severity of how they handled with the excess births was horrible. One of its most extreme times was in the early 1980’s when the policy was encouraging forced abortions, infanticide, and strict penalties. The policy focuses entirely on males. If your baby were expected to be a female, you would usually have to go through an abortion or can setup for adoption b
y other family members if you can. The families who do consist of female children are ones where the family pays the government extra and for some rural families. Having any additional children results in large fines and their workplaces are less beneficial when it comes to bonuses. To an extent of when it comes down to numbers, this policy is great. But if this is the best China can come up with, then they really need to take priorities into hand.
Now in India, the overpopulation problem is affecting the government by overwhelming it with too much too handle. India’s solution to this problem is to either lower the birth rate or increase death rate. But of course the chosen solution was to lower the birth rate. It has been recorded that
India has decreased its birth rate from 2.2 in the 1980’s to 1.47 in 2003. Though it is still above the world average of 1.33, which is India’s goal. India’s National Population Commission has set this goal for 2045, but some believe that will still not be enough to decrease the population enough. They expect for actual results only if they can accomplish this by 2015. The penalties for having multiple children in India are also male dominant like China. Female children, if there are cultural pressures to produce boys, are to an extent, deprived of food, education, and health services. And even to the extreme cases of abortions and female infanticide. Families who have female children usually lose benefits from the government.
With these extreme cases happening in the world, some wonder why there is not more aid to help these countries in ways such as homing many citizens who are part of the overpopulation factor. Because the actions of killing infants and children due to the fact there is simply just not enough room or supplies, is pretty outrageous. While there are other serious problems in the world besides the facts of some country’s population problems, there should really be more things being done in order to solve the problem. 567
