Curbing the Human Population Needs Rethinking
Overdue growth in world population has been a matter of serious concern for one
and all, since the gains of scientific and other innovations are more than neutralised
by the exponential growth in human population. United Nations estimates the current
world population around 6.8 billion. It’s with the objective to focus attention on the
urgency and importance of population issues that the Governing Council of United
Nations Development Programme in 1989 initiated observing 11 July each year, the
World Population Day.
Anywhere, the existing infrastructures of housing, health facilities, transportation,
power, education, food grains availability are disequilibrated by population overgrowth
to which poverty is intrinsically correlated. It is imperative therefore to have in
place systems that curb populations.
In India, the efforts of Government by way of introducing Ladli Yojana (single girl
family scheme) and enforcing family welfare programmes have made considerable
headway, yet the results have been slow mainly due to traditional mindsets of having
one or more sons. The communities need to be educated in efficacious ways on this
issue.
We at TNAI are aware of the gravity of the issue, and our Position Statement,
underscoring that endorsing the population control policy of Govt. of India urges its
member branches to contribute towards pooling the knowledge, disseminating the
information and mobilising the resources to meet the challenge by organising inservice
education programmes for nursing personnel, creating awareness among
people etc. The TNAI is a institutional member of Jansankhya Sthirata Kosh (National
Population Stabilisation Fund). We hope, nurses can do still more by strengthening
their activities in social education by convincing the communities about the small family
norm.
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