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a) India, like many third world countries is undergoing a population explosion. One out of every six people in the world lives in India. Indias population of 1 billion people is the second largest in the world. By contrast, the United States, with the third largest population, accounts for only one of every 20 people. Indias population is not only large, but also growing at the rate of 1. 9 percent per year. India is growing at such a rate that it has been forecast that its population will pass that of Chinas at around 2028 at about 1. 7 billion and become the most populous nation on Earth.
An Indian woman has an average of 3. 6 children in her lifetime, which is significantly more than replacement-level fertility. Thus, Indian births far outnumber deaths, and the population has increased dramatically as a result. A number of factors affect fertility rates. One is the availability and acceptability of contraceptives and health services for women and children. Another is a general cultural preference for sons. This creates an imbalance of males to females in certain areas of the country.
The educational status of women also has a significant effect on fertility. Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India and the lowest fertility rate. According to World Bank studies, for every year of schooling a woman receives, her fertility rate is reduced by 10 percent. Kerala also has the lowest infant mortality rate in India. As a rule, where infant mortality rates are high, parents have more children because they cant be sure their children will survive. India s overpopulation problem is the biggest reason of why India is a third world country.
Rapid population growth creates many pressures. In the last 40 years, Indias ecological systems have been severely taxed as the population has more than doubled, increasing consumption of resources. Poverty is a serious problem, and roughly four out of five of Indias poor live in rural areas. Many of these have migrated in search of economic opportunity When they migrate it is difficult for cities to provide jobs, education, sanitation, and health services to ever-larger populations of Indian migrants.
New studies suggest that a truly effective population program should involve not only contraceptive access but also economic opportunity, access to health care, and education levels. These factors are especially important for women, whose literacy levels in India are only about half those of men. b) Increasing food supply to Indias masses is a task that has been an expensive and badly organized issue in the past. The application of traditional farming practices such as crop rotation and terracing, although already implemented in many areas of India could with better organization and with the aid of new biotechnologies attempt to maintain a sustainable agriculture. Bio-engineering some of the staple crops in India could also help provide a better return on crop yields. This could involve genetically engineering a plant so that it is poisonous to specific insect predators once specific to it.
This would again mean that a large percentage of that crop that would ordinarily have been lost to predation, wouldnt be wasted and would instead be a viable source of food.
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