Subject: Population and associated issues

Population Education refers to a systematic educational process aimed at developing awareness, attitudes, values, and skills that enable individuals and society to understand population dynamics and their impact on development, environment, health, and quality of life.

Main Objectives of Population Education

Awareness generation – To help people understand size, growth, distribution, and composition of population. Eg- explain concepts like Birth Rate, Death Rate, and Migration

Understanding Population-Development Linkage – Eg- Pressure of population on employment, housing, and environment.

Linking Population to Quality of Life – To demonstrate that a smaller family size is directly correlated with better health, nutrition, and educational opportunities.

Promoting Small Family Norm and encouraging responsible parenthood. Eg- two-child norm.

Improving Reproductive Health Knowledge – Eg- Awareness about spacing methods and family planning.

Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment – To promote equal status of women in decision-making.

Changing Attitudes and Behaviour –

Acceptance of contraception and delayed childbearing.

To eradicate the “Son Meta-preference”

To stress the importance of maternal and child health. Eg- Focus on nutrition, immunisation, and institutional deliveries.

Developing Responsible Citizenship – Population stabilisation as a national goal.

Measures Taken in India to Achieve These Objectives

National Population Education Project (1980)- Launched with support from UNFPA, it integrates population education into the school and teacher-training curricula across India.

National Population Policy, 2000 – Comprehensive policy framework linking population stabilisation with education, health, and women’s empowerment.

National family planning program to reduce TFR to 2.1

Curricular Integration by NCERT- population-related themes are included in Social Studies, Science, and Languages.

National Health Mission (NHM) – Universal access to family planning and maternal health services. Eg- Free contraceptives, institutional deliveries

ASHA and Anganwadi Network for grassroots dissemination of population education. Eg- Counselling on contraception, birth spacing, nutrition, and immunisation.

Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Campaigns – Eg- Hum Do, Hamare Do

Mission Parivar Vikas – Targeted intervention in high fertility districts using community-based educators to provide information on family planning

Women-Centric Schemes for empowerment and autonomy. Eg- Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

Legal Measures – Enforcement of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, PCPNDT Act

Use of AI and Technology – Eg- SnehAI chatbot provides a safe space for adolescents to learn about sexual health.

Way Forward

Teacher Training and Capacity Building through DIETs (District Institute of Education and Training), and digital modules via DIKSHA portal

Reaching the out-of-school youth and illiterate adults under “New India Literacy Programme” (NILP)

Universal access to contraception and maternal healthcare

Involvement of Community and Religious Leaders for attitudinal change

Promoting women entrepreneurship under Stand-up India

Effective Population Education can transform the “demographic burden” into a “demographic dividend”

While India has emerged as “fastest growing economy” and 4th largest economy, its ranking in HDI, 2025 was 130th out of 193 countries.

Reasons behind low human development in india

Jobless growth due to shift from agriculture to service led growth instead of manufacturing led growth. Eg- service sector contributes 55% of GDP but employs only 30% of workforce

Economic Inequality – richest 1% control more than 40% of total wealth, while the bottom 50% own merely 3% (Oxfam Report)

Over 90% of the Indian workforce is in the informal sector – lacking social security and stable wages, leading to “working poverty.”

Social Stratification- Caste-based discrimination prevents upward mobility for the marginalized. Eg- 96% manual scavengers are Dalits

Population Pressure (1.35 billion) strains public infrastructure, housing, and the job market.

Poor Social Infrastructure

Education – low public investment (2.9% of GDP) lead to “quality crisis” and high dropout rates at secondary and higher levels

Skill Gap – only about 51.25% of youth are employable.

Gender Disparities

Low FLFPR – 41% in India vs 71% in China

Women own only 13% of land while forming 63% of agriculture workforce

Glass ceiling effect – discrimination and low representation at higher positions

India ranked 131st out of 148 countries in WEF’s Gender Gap Report

Regional disparity – Eg- BIMARU states lag behind southern states in human development indicators

“Climate Inequality” – women and poor are most vulnerable to climatic shocks like heatwaves or disasters. Eg- “climate induced migration” after floods in Assam

Measures taken for human development in India

Healthcare and Nutrition

Ayushman Bharat (PM-JAY)- over 40 crore Ayushman Cards have been issued.

Over 1.82 lakh primary health centers have been upgraded to “Arogya Mandirs”.

POSHAN Abhiyaan- targets stunting, wasting, and anemia.

Education and Skill Development

NEP 2020- 5+3+3+4 structure and the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC)

Skill India Mission- trained over 1.63 crore candidates.

Poverty and Living Standards

Over 40 crore people were lifted out of multidimensional poverty between 2005 and 2021

Kerala has been declared officially free from “extreme poverty” in 2025

Jal Jeevan Mission- Provided tap water to over 14.5 crore rural households

PM Awas Yojana (PMAY)- Over 4 crore pucca houses have been built

PM Ujjwala Yojana- Over 10.3 crore LPG connections have been provided

Financial Inclusion – Over 52 crore bank accounts have been opened

Way Forward

Capability Approach- increase expenditure on Health (2.5% of GDP) and Education (6% of GDP)

Bottom-up Planning – Porto Alegre Brazil Model

Expand MGNREGA and link with climate-resilient livelihoods (water conservation, afforestation).

Women Empowerment by adopting best practices like Kerala’s Kudumbshree Model

Focus on labour intensive sectors like textiles for job creation (Economic survey)

This can ensure whole of government and life-cycle approach to realise the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047

The term demographic winter refers to a situation of persistently low fertility rates, leading to population ageing, workforce shrinkage and long-term economic and social challenges.

Features of ‘Demographic Winter’

Below Replacement Fertility (<2.1) for a prolonged period. Eg- Italy

Decline in the working-age population.

Negative Population Growth in extreme cases. Eg- Japan, Ukraine, Russia, China

High Old-Age Dependency Ratio

Economic Slowdown Risks – Reduced consumption, innovation, and productivity.

Fiscal Stress on State – Pressure on pensions, healthcare, and social security systems.

World moving towards demographic winter

Arguments in favour

Falling Global Fertility Rates – declined from about 5 in 1950 to near 2.4 in 2025

Regions Already in Demographic Winter

East Asia

South Korea has the world’s lowest TFR (projected 0.65-0.68 for 2026).

Japan has seen its population shrink for over a decade

China recorded its fourth consecutive year of population decline in 2025.

Europe

Countries like Italy, Spain, and Greece have TFRs around 1.2-1.4.

Eastern European nations (Bulgaria, Latvia) are facing “double winters” due to low births combined with massive youth emigration.

Among developing countries

Brazil, Thailand, and Vietnam are seeing faster-than-expected fertility declines as they urbanize.

India’s TFR is 1.9 as per UNFPA

Changing Social Values – Eg- movements like “Tang Ping” (lying flat) in China and the “DINK” (Double Income, No Kids) lifestyle

Arguments against

Some regions still have high fertility. Eg- TFR for Africa is around 4%

Countries like India are still in a favourable age structure phase. Eg- median age of 28.

Nations like Canada, Australia, and the UAE use aggressive immigration policies to offset low domestic birth rates

Even with low fertility, the global population will not peak until the 2080s (at ~10.3 billion)

Thus, the way forward lies in managing demographic diversity through adaptive policies and balancing population stabilisation, economic sustainability, and social welfare

Poverty and developmental issues