| Population and Politics: Raising quality of life is the national priority, be they Hindus or Muslims | |||
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By: K Parthasarathi July 15, 2007 Views expressed here are author"s own and not of this website. Full disclaimer is at the bottom. 
Feedback(Author is a Chennai based freelance writer. Has contributes regularly at Samachar.) Related Articles: Urban renewal mission may not arrest urban migration K Parthasarathi Population, Politics and National Priority K Parthasarathi Development of Rural India’s Entrepreneurs K Bhatia For the sake of Democracy? Shachi Rairikar The tragedy of Indian democracy V.Sundaram Demographic Threats in Assam D. N. Bezboruah Time to Revamp Indian Democracy? Moorthy Muthuswamy PhD Indian Democracy – Large but in poor health Raghbendra Jha The Road To Economic Development Rasik S Change in population size, geographic distribution and composition of gender are all concerns of the government. It has to balance its population policy with the overall goal of improving the national prosperity. It cannot allow one section or state to wallow in poverty, illiteracy, ill health while other sections are making progress. There is little correlation between the population size of a country and its power of influence in the international sphere. If size alone had mattered, dinosaur would not have gone extinct. United States with about 4% of world population, far lower than that of China or India is the most powerful nation with its unwritten writ running across the world. It is not therefore the number of people that is significant but their wealth. The wealth of the nation as represented by the per capita income as also the attitude of the people and the government to exercise their influence in the larger sphere are essential factors for wielding this power. It is actually the product of both the size of population and per capita income that would determine the weight in political power. While it would be prudent for USA to increase its population by birth or immigration to augment its national wealth further, the key for India and China lies in their increase of disposable national wealth, restricting the size of their population and the concomitant swelling of per capita income. If India or China were to do this and USA remained stagnant with the present population level, America is bound to yield its high pedestal to the former. This is however not wholly true within a country. The size of population of a religious or ethnic group within the country determines to an extent its power in the political affairs of the country. More so in countries that have one man, one vote system. But size alone is not adequate. Coming to the national scene, the revelation in the Census of an increase in the rate of population growth of Muslims in comparison to the Hindus by itself may not matter much. The economic power of a group or the state rests on its high literacy and occupational skills for gainful employment. Mere increase in population is not a sure road to greater power. The Jews in America form a negligible minority but they have high professional and educational status. They occupy key positions in the society and are able to exert their influence despite their smaller number. On the other hand blacks forming sizable portion of the population in South and Deep South have not been able to attain the political power like the whites as adequate attention has not been bestowed on education and improvement of skills. The Muslims in India can become a potent political force only if they embrace the educational system followed by others instead of putting their children in Madrassas that teach the children subjects not relevant to acquiring skills. If they join the main educational stream, it would enable them to acquire much higher literacy and job related skills resulting in economic prosperity. No doubt the growth rate would decline. There is yet another lesson both for Hindus and Muslims alike. Indian population is relatively young when compared to other nations. Higher fertility and having more than one wife lead to larger number of dependents. This is further assisted by increased medical facilities and decreased mortality in general. With the ratio of income earners to the non earning number in the families thus declining, the standard of living necessarily comes down and affects not only their economic well being but that of the country also as the net disposable income comes down. Huge capital is needed for infrastructure like roads, railways, electricity, irrigation communications and such like. This can be found without borrowing from abroad only by increasing the national savings for investment. A decline in population rate would reduce significantly the number of dependents per wage earner and increase the disposable income for capital investments as also the standard of living. Change in population size, geographic distribution and composition of gender are all concerns of the government. It has to balance its population policy with the over all goal of improving the national prosperity. It cannot allow one section or state to wallow in poverty, illiteracy, ill health while other sections are making progress. Increasing the number in the family cannot be considered an inalienable right. This should be tempered with the social obligation of all round improvement. Any legislation by the government should have a common purpose uninfluenced by religious considerations. The government places high value on human life and its laws are designed to protect it. Yet in times of war, it sends its army to fight well aware of the imminent loss of lives. This is done for the greater good of the maximum. Likewise the government for the national welfare may enact laws restricting the size of family to two through family planning or abortion. The Indian programme of family planning hitherto has been like the curate"s egg good in parts. It has been successful only among the literates and the economically well off. Its implementation has not been uniform as it is voluntary. Certain states in the North and certain religious groups have not availed of the facility in the absence of persuasion from the governments and an element of gentle compulsion. The result is there for all to see with poverty levels high among these states and religious groups in comparison to others. While the average number of children in better off families is 1.99, the average is 3.47 in the poorer families indicating a correlation to poverty and the number of mouths to feed. An emerging pattern from the Census figures is that as the communities move up the socio-economic ladder, their growth rate starts coming down. This is evident from the fact that the better developed states tend to have lower growth rates than the less developed. But the economically weaker sections see strength in number as even kids are sent to work to fetch more money. Sad but true, this situation can be addressed only by governmental programs of rewarding the families of the economically weaker sections with a monetary inducement in the form of an allowance where the families do not have more than two children and also restricting freebies like free ration, free schooling to two children. This can be done with a cut off date so as not to harm the existing families with more than two children. This is bound to encourage the newer families to adopt two child norms. In a secular country, laws should be enacted for all sections of the people without discrimination on the basis of religion, gender or region. Instead of sensationalizing the revelations in the Census figures on religious lines, it would be wise to accept the positive correlation between higher growth rate on one side and illiteracy and poverty on the other and take corrective measures for raising the quality of life for all, be they Hindus or Muslims. Politics need not be injected in what is otherwise a national priority. K Parthasarathi
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