Should the population growth of a country be controlled in anyway?

The rate at which population of the world is growing is alarming; the worlds population growth rate is 1.17 percent and total world population is closing on 7 billion people in 2010. The worlds population will soon reach a level where there will not be enough resources to sustain life. Growth must be checked to avoid this catastrophe. Along with it, the population of a country should be controlled as it brings about social problems, thwarts the economic condition of a country, causes the predicament of housing and degrades the balance in the environment since the earths resources are finite. However the use of irrational methods to control population which impede human rights is to be condemned and cautious must be taken as control of population acts contradiction to religious belief, causes ageing problem and brings social and cultural dispute. The paramount reason population growth is controlled is to maintain the optimum population of a country. Optimum population refers to the number of population that will produce the highest per capita economic return given the resources available and their full utilization. If the population of a country is above its optimum, negative effects of overcrowding (pollution, robbery, crime) and environmental damage reduces welfare and there will be too few resources to maintain the population. On the other hand, if the population is below the optimum, the country will lack the required manpower to harness the resources. In Nigeria, its population is the ultimate resource and not an economic burden. The following factors arise when there is ebb and flow in the optimum population of a country. The population growth is controlled to its optimum due to the lack of space and resources to sustain the population that crops up with increase in population. In Nepal, increase in population has overcrowded the capital where there is lack of space for further houses to be built. In accordance to that, people have started living in blocks and apartments due to the lack of space. In the south Asian counties like India and Pakistan, the problem of slums has increased conspicuously due to lack of space. Some countries, such as the United Arab Emirates and particularly the Emirate of Dubai have constructed large artificial islands, or have created large dam and dike systems, like the Netherlands, which reclaim land from the sea to increase their total land area. Along with space to live, there will be scarcity of agricultural lands. Some scientists have said that in the future, densely populated cities will use vertical farming to grow food inside skyscrapers. Similarly, the government cannot provide even the basic needs to the people in case of overpopulation. When the growth rate in Iran exceeded the capacity of the government to provide services, then President Rafsanjani launched family planning campaigns to reduce the increasing rate. Another compelling reason that the population growth must be controlled is to curb social problems. With the rise in population come problems like crime, violence, ethical disparity, transgression and hostility. Increased theft by people stealing resources and conflict over scarce resources and crowding to survive has elevated the crime rate. In addition, democracy is threatened due to overpopulation, and could give rise to totalitarian style governments. Over

population leads to the need of laws that to control havocs and mayhems. This is why overpopulated countries like India try to control the population growth. In addition, population should be controlled to maintain the health condition in a country. Overpopulation may lead to unhygienic living condition- water resource depletion, discharge of raw sewage and solid waste disposal with starvation with malnutrition or poor diet deficiency diseases. Similarly, intensive industrial unit farming to sustain large populations consequences in human threats like the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria diseases, excessive air and water pollution and even new viruses that can infect humans. Each day 40,000 children die from malnutrition and its related diseases. 150 million children in the world suffer from poor health due to food shortages. Fresh water also cannot keep up with an increasing population as the supply of fresh water is limited. The California drought exemplifies this problem. For those reasons countries try to curb the rate of population growth keeping in mind what is best for their populace. Population growth is increased or decreased to maintain the economic position of a country. A country with high population bring economic problem like unemployment and lack of budget to meet the high consumption rate. Spain had its unemployment rate climbing to 37% due to overpopulation. The proportion of the worlds population living on less than $1 per day has halved in 20 years. Environmentalist Ted Turner has suggested that there is an imperative need to strictly implement a China-like one-child policy, because this would help control and reduce population gradually and most successfully as is evidenced by the success and resultant economic-growth of China due to reduction of poverty in recent years. In France, the retirement age is increased to maintain the ratio of dependent people to independent. Eastern Europe countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, and Italy have come up with policies to encourage its people to have babies as they lack workforce to harness the resources available. Population can be controlled to regulate the migration rate, both immigration and emigration. The problem of brain drain still prevails in developing countries where the competent people of that country are lured by other developed countries. In most African countries like Ethiopia brain drain is a dire problem; the government have not been able to invest on and improve the living standards of the country, hence skilled manpower migrate to other countries in search of better living. Where as, developed countries have huge number of people coming in for better facilities and job opportunities. To curb that Australia have changed their policy: now they only want highly competent workforce who will aid to increase the countrys economy. Other developed countries have implemented strict policies in regard to visa and formulated laws against illegal immigrate and sham marriage for PR. However, in countries like Nepal and Philippines, more than 20% of GDP comes from foreign remittance; therefore these countries further advocate people to come. Migration is also controlled to inhibit the exploitation of people and human trafficking. Nepal has condemned people from going to Arab countries as many Nepalese especially women going to those countries in the past have suffered from extensive labor, exploitation, harassment while they do not get good payment. However, irrational means to manage population cannot be accepted. Forced sterilization to decrease population in a country can not be customary in moral grounds. People must be educated about the negative effects of overpopulation and family planning rather than coercing then. Egypt came up with family planning education program and putting women in workforce.

This method proved to be a great success rather than forced sterilization implemented by Indira gandhi, late Prime Minister of India, which is still criticized for creating public aversion. Other acceptable methods used are: Iran had punished parents having more than three children; China did not allow social welfare, free education and health facilities for the second child in their one child policy, Japan has made it obligatory for immigrants to pass language test. One of the best ways to decrease population is to educate people about the harmful effects of overpopulation and dispense family planning education. On the other hand, to increase population in acceptable ways Switzerland advocates early marriage and pays for maternal leave for a whole year. Other ways could be by banning abortion, implementing policies like providing money to parents having more than two children. Furthermore, the country practicing population control must be vigilant about ageing problems that comes with control of population. It is predicted that Chinas elderly population may triple from 130 million to 400 million over the next five years given their one-child policy. The ratio between the dependent and independent population will fluctuate conspicuously resulting in economic instability. Use of contemporary medical science has decreased the death rate increasing the number of dependent people in countries like Japan and China. This may act in contradiction to the governments interest, as the government ought to compensate the old people and the workforce will be outdated resulting in dwindle of economy. In addition, control of population acts antithetical to orthodox religious beliefs and culture. May religion condemn the use of contraceptives and believe that babies are the gift of god. Thus, family planning has been rejected in such fanatical societies, due to religious point of view. Pope Benedict XVI in his message for World Day of Peace in 2008 denounced campaigns to reduce the birth rates. Similarly the Roman Catholicism is morally opposed to artificial contraception. Likewise Hinduism promotes the concept of large family. Hence, imposing people with laws to control population could mean deviating then from their religious right. We must also be wary about the controlling population as children are taken as a sign of prestige in the society from a long time; they feel bearing more children is virility of men. Children are also considered workforce in agricultural countries as more hands can do more work and can raise the income of the family. Many think that families should be large so that the children can take care of the parents in their old age. However, they who think so overlook the fact that people with fewer children are better off economically and are usually more able to save and invest for their retirement than if they had spent their money on raising more children. In addition, control of population in China has led to lack of women in the country in a ratio of 163.5 to 100 and in Taiwan there are 110 women per 100 men. It proves a great vulnerability in population control as UN states that less than 107 to 100 is only apposite. To reiterate, the control of population is indispensable to curb any debacle but must be carried out in rational ways. Educating people about family planning is more ethical than coercing people to sterilization. Concerned authorities must plan their steps well so that they do not extensively intervene in private lives of the people and their right and must take to consideration problems budding from such methods as they are often ineffaceable.