Population Control Measures in India:A Critical Review

The world's population reached 7.3 billion in mid 2015 and is projected to increase by more than one billion people within the next 15 years, reaching 8.5 billion in 2030, and to increase further to 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. 60% of the global population lives in Asia (4.4 billion). China (1.4 billion) and India (1.3 billion) remain the two most populous countries of the world, representing 19 and 18 percent of the world's population, respectively though India has only 2.4% of the world's land mass. Within seven years, the population of India is expected to surpass that of China1. In the year 2011, India had a population of 1.21 billion but what was alarming to note was that Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India (199 millions) had a population greater than Brazil which is the fifth largest country in the world in terms of its land area2. In 1951 and 2011, IMR was 146 and 50 respectively and so was TFR at 6 and 2.4 respectively clearly supporting mother and child health services as being the pillar stones for curbing the menace of population in our country. The high fertility could also be the result of India's high unmet need for family planning (12.8%) and lower contraceptive usage by the eligible couples (56.3% were using any method of family planning while 48.5% were using any modern method).7 The solution lies not only in contraceptive technology but in attempts to deal with the problems of ill-heath and disease in the country. Many measures were adopted in last one century to control population. This paper highlights various measures adopted for population control and reasons for their success or failure.