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Essay India’s Aging Population

Decent Essays

India is the largest democracy in the world, a nuclear power and a merging economy (BBC News). Currently, India is the second most populous country and according to United Nations’ projection it will surpass China and become the most populated by 2028 (UN news). In 2028, both China and India are predicted to have 1.45 billion, but China’s population will decrease thereafter whereas India’s will continue to increase. This fact implies China’s controversial population control mechanisms will be successful, while India’s will fail. India dabbled in forced sterilization (vasectomy) in the 1970s; where only men with over two children were suppose to be sterilized; however due to abuse and corruption, many unintended men (and women) “were …show more content…

Countries with such an outlook (family-orientated) will always have high birth rates. Additionally, cultural notions about family, marriage and children change over centuries because such notions are passed down through generations, so they change slowly. Sharma’s personal article is as recent as March 2014 and it shows present-day India. Overtime, these notions are going to change as illustrated by the population decline after 2060. However for the time being cultural attitudes towards marriage and children will cause India’s population to grow.
Natural increase of the population occurs when crude birth rate is higher than the crude death rate. In 2013 World Factbook reports the crude birth rate (CBR) and crude death rate (CDR) as 20.24 and 7.39 respectively, which means the natural increase is 12.85 people per 1000. The CBR is almost three times as much as the CDR, which implies that the total fertility rate (TFR) is high, but surprisingly it is only 2.55. Ideally countries want TFR to be 2.1 as it means the country is replacing its population (for each death there is a birth). Arguably, TFR can be any number between two and three because humans can only be measured with whole numbers and the basic point is TFR needs to be just a little higher than 2, so 3 (closest whole number). Considering the fact India is already overpopulated, the TFR means the population will keep growing seeing that as people die, they are already replaced. For India, the

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