What is Population Control?

• The quality of life that people lead, has progressed a lot in the last few decades. Advanced technology and improved healthcare systems have led to low death rates and increased birth rates, which has resulted in one of the most challenging problems faced by the world today- population explosion.

• India, in particular, has displayed great advancements in lifestyle, status, economy, healthcare etc. leading to an exponential boom in its population. The population of India today is 12 times the population that of what existed during its independence.

• advantages for a country, overpopulation leads to a shortage of many, eventually becoming a burden.

• This is why population control measures are adopted by countries; The alarming population growth rate needs to be controlled to sustain the people for a long time, without burning out the resources that are crucial for survival.

Population Control refers to the method/ practice used to control and maintain the type, location, and quantity of people on the globe. The term ‘Population’ means the group of all the living organisms of a particular species, in a certain geographical area, at a specific time, who can interbreed, and the various ways by which their numbers and kind are controlled are called population control measures.

Population is the biggest resource for a country; However unchecked population growth is disadvantageous and this is why various types of population control measures have been adopted by governments across the globe.

This article aims to discuss in detail the various measures of population control that have generally been adopted worldwide across nations and also provide notes on this topic, covered under Chapter 2 of the NCERT Class 12 Geography textbook.