Human Population Control, Research Paper Example

Introduction

This paper examines the population policies in the two emerging economies of China and India. These are compared relative to the different issues and challenges facing each country. In addition the concept of population growth is addressed relative to the linkage with environmental concerns. Consideration is given to how these challenges have been met and potential threats in the future.

Population control in China

China has some 1.2 billion people in its population and is the country with the largest human population on Earth. In 1979 the Chinese Administration introduced a policy of ‘one child per family’ and this provided certain benefits to those who complied. Equally those failing to comply were taxed up to 50% of their income and in certain cases loss of employment. In 1980 they introduced the birth quota system in order to enable the monitoring of population growth. Here the Chinese Government established target quotas for each region and local officials were held responsible to ensure that these targets were not exceeded.  (Cook)

The policies have created certain controversies and problems for china. One of these relates to the fact that most families wanted boys. As such female pregnancies were terminated and resulted in large numbers of abortions.  This has resulted in a shortage of female children and poses a problem for future population growth with a shortage of girls to that of the large number of boys.  This has since resulted in the Government changing policies ion rural communities to that of the ‘daughter-only-household’ policy. Here families that have a daughter first are allowed to have a second child.   The advantages to these strict population controls are such that it has allowed the Chinese to raise their standards of living and improve the economy.

Population Control in India

Measures in India have been less stringent than that of China. “Recent United Nations projections, carried by the Daily Mail, show India could overtake China and its 1.34 billion people as the world’s most populous nation by 2030.” (Global Post).  Certain provinces like that of Rajasthan have been providing inducements to the people in order to meet its sterilization targets. This has included household goods items like Fridges, Tele-visions etc. The Deputy Chief Medical officer of the province stated “Everyone who gets sterilized between today and 30 September will be entered into a lottery to win prizes. We felt we were falling behind on our sterilization targets of 21,000 per year, so the district collector came up with this idea. We hope at least 6,000 people will come forward in the next 3 months” (Global Post).

Conclusions

Both nations run the risk of large-scale pandemics owing to environmental conditions that may drastically reduce populations i.e. Bird Flu, HIV/Aids, Malaria etc. Population is also linked to environment and climate change because of  items like cars, refrigerators, power etc. that all contribute to climate change.

Works Cited

Cook, Jamie. 5 12 1999. http://maps.unomaha.edu/peterson/funda/sidebar/chinapop.html. 16 10 2012.

Global Post. India’s “sex drive” solution to population explosion. 2 7 2011. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/indias-sex-drive-solution-population-explosion. 15 10 2012.