INTRODUCTION:
Population in a simple term can mean an increase in a number of people. Due to industrialization and urbanization, there has been a drastic increase in the number of people towards the end of 14th century.
As it is incidentally clear that every person needs a certain area of space to live in. hence to make space of million and trillion of people, the area which should be reserved for mother earth and natural environment must be encroached upon and cut down for dwelling and occupational purpose, which in return had led to great devastation and natural calamities.
The most evident and clear example of ill-effect of this great increase in population is global warming.
MEANING AND DEFINITION:
Cambridge dictionary :
Populations mean “all the people or animals of a particular type or group who live in one country, area or place.”
In simple words, populations mean the number of people in a geographical area.
According to William Webster :
Overpopulation means “The condition of having a population so dense as to cause environmental deterioration, an impaired quality of life or a population crash.”
ETYMOLOGY
The word “population” as well as the word “populace” are derived from the latin word “populus.”
Populus means “people”
Explanation
The term overpopulation today generally relates to the overpopulation of humans.
Hence overpopulation of humans can be associated with the relationship between the entire human population and its environment.
Overpopulation can be understood as existing if at a time the amount of non-renewable resources is less than that of a population need.
That means, demand is more increasing and supply is limited.
Causes:
Before 21st century there used to be epidemics, wars, natural calamities and man-made hazards but today we hardly see these due to much scientific development and adoption of a peaceful method for settlement of disputes.
The impact of over-population is more on developing country like India, in comparison with the developed country like the USA. But altogether it affects the whole of earth now.
In order to overcome the serious problem of overpopulation, we should first under the factors that cause it-
Better and advanced medical facilities:
Due to great advancement in science and especially in pharmacy, the percentage of diseases and epidemics has reduced a lot. Today, almost every illness and sickness can be cures by medical science. This has led to increased in the life-expectancy of people and increase in birth rate and a decrease in death rate.
Reduction in death rate :
Statistically, the number of children born should be equal to a number of the dead person, each year, so as to bring statistically in population.
But if there is a change in this statistics, there can be two possible on one hand, if the number of birth reduces it will lead to extinction.
On the other hand, if the death rate increases it will lead to overpopulation, which is a serious problem today.
Advancement in technology:
With scientific discoveries and technologies advancement, it has become possible for couples having difficult conceive or begot a child, to have a child.
Immigration:
Due to an easement in transport, people in great number migrate to different places and different areas and settle down there.
This causes overcrowding in such urban areas.
Lack of family planning:
Even today the major portion of the world population is illiterate and live below the poverty line.
Also, getting children marriage at a young age causes the increase in population.
Thus, due to almost no family planning, it causes overpopulation.
Effects of overpopulation:
Increase in overpopulation causes great impact on the ecological system.
Depletion of natural resources:
Resources are very limited on earth, but due to overpopulation the demand for same resources are great in numbers, hence overpopulation causes more exploitation of nature and its resources and ultimately depleting it.
Degradation of the environment:
The rise in a number of vehicles and industry and on the country reduction of trees due to deforestation has lead to increase in carbon dioxide proportion in the atmosphere, causing global warming.
There is melting of glaciers, non-periodic change in climate patterns rise in sea level, acid rains have increased to ecological imbalance.
Disputes and wars:
Overpopulation causes measure strain on the resources. As the demand increases the disputes over water, land and other resources is increasing and leading to disturbing in a peaceful society.
This, in turn, causes, war amongst nation and exploiting more resources and causing more devastation on the environment.
Poverty:
Due to inappropriate demand and insufficient supply, the major part of the society gets deviated from getting even the basic necessities of life like- food, clothing, and shelter. Thus they die of saturation and hunger.
The rise in unemployment:
The country is a developing concern hence a number of job aspirants are more but the available jobs are very less in number. Hence non-availability of jobs causes an increase in crime rate as people tend to steal to feed themselves and their family.
Solutions to over-population:
Better education:
Educating the society is the best way to aware people above population issues, through education people come to know about the importance of family planning and ways to control it.
They also learn a method to control environment and maintain ecological balance.
Tax benefits or concession :
To curb overpopulation, waving out a certain part of income tax or lowering rate of taxes for the couples having two children can motivate people about family planning.
It is human tendencies to achieve more benefits, schemes, and advance.
Knowledge of sex education :
Children should be educated at their very school level about the knowledge of sex, the importance of sex ratio, the effect of its imbalance and many more other related aspects lack this knowledge results into several activities among the teenager
Conclusion:
For the efficient settlement and sustainable development, it is important to curb the gross issues like overpopulation. it is the root-cause of other social issues