To seek focus attention on urgency and importance of population issues, World Population Day is observed on July 11 every year. It was established by the United Nations Development Programme in 1989.
Current estimates indicate that roughly 83 million people are being added to the world’s population every year.
The celebrations of the day involves bringing light to the exploding population and the importance of reproductive health. Population issues include things like family planning, human rights, right to health, the baby’s health, gender equality, child marriage, use of contraceptives, sex education, awareness about sexually transmitted disease, etc. TV channels and radio broadcasts various programs related to family planning.
World Population Day: All you need to know
According to recent United Nation Projections, India is set to surpass China as the world’s most populous country by 2027. There are several factors responsible for this explosion. The prime cause is poverty. Poor people often consider children as assets who help them to supplement family income even at the tender age. Illiteracy also being a cause, rural people are not aware. In India around 36% males and 61% females are illiterate. Neither they have full knowledge of family planning nor they know about the consequences of excessive childbirth. Child marriage and multi-marriage system is also one of the main causes of population explosion. Even though legally the marriageable age of a girl is 18 years, the concept of early marriage still prevails, and getting married at a young age prolongs the childbearing age. Also, in India, marriage is a sacred obligation and a universal practice, where almost every woman is married at the reproductive age.
According to current estimates, India’s population will peak in the early 2060s at 1.7 billion. The birth rates are still higher in India. We have been successful in declining the death rates but the same cannot be said for birth rates.