Population Control And Its Effect On The Growth Of A Human...

Population control refers to the practice of artificially altering the rate of growth of a human population. Historically, this has been made possible by limiting the birth rate, usually by government mandate. It-) has been undertaken as a response to factors including high or increasing levels of poverty, environmental concerns, religious reasons, and overpopulation. The idea that population control is needed to be implemented in society dates back to 1798, when Thomas Malthus suggested it in his Essay on the Principle of Population. In 1968, Paul Ehrlich noted in The Population Bomb that, We must cut the cancer of population growth, and that, if this was not done, there would be only one other solution, namely the death rate†¦show more content†¦Among the present day practices, an important example of mandated population control is China s one-child policy. China s policy of discouraging having more than one child has been credited with a very significant slowing of China s population growth, which had been very high before the policy was implemented. However, the policy has come under criticism as its implementation involved forced abortions and forced sterilization. The policy is controversial both within and outside of China because of the issues it raises, the manner in which the policy has been implemented and because of concerns about negative economic and social consequences. In India, the government introduced Nirodh, a contraception to control child birth. It coined a slogan Hum do, hamare do implying one family, two children to reinforce the message of population control. Lately, a law has been framed which makes only people with two or fewer children eligible for election to a Gram panchayat, or local government. Another country that has succeeded in sharply reducing its birth rate in recent years is Iran. The government emphasizes the benefits of smaller families and the use of contraception. In fact, it is the only country where mandatory contraceptive courses are required for both males and females before a marriage license can be obtained. Population control has been necessitated by a