Population growth in India: The psycho-social and economic perspectives

The problem of population growth is a big challenge to socio-economic development and global wellbeing ofpeople of any country. As regards India, it is a very much alarming as it is challenging the whole economic resources and also the human wellbeing. The land resources and productions are limited while the population of the country is rapidly increasing causing so many social, health, economic and wellbeing related problems for the people in general and the economically poor people in particular. The imbalance between the population and the resources causes numerous problems and it needs to be addressed properly. At the time of the independence of the country the total population of India was 361,088,090, while at present our population is 135.26 crores, the largest population in the world after China. In order to attain the national goals of health, employment, economic development and wellbeing of our people, we must be careful to launch such strategies which can prove to be instrumental to realize the goals of development, peace, progress and self-reliance and to contribute to global wellbeing as well. It is felt that controlling the population in India needs a long term committed policy; otherwise things may go out of control. As regards this paper, it deals with the concept ofpopulation growth, the factors responsible for it, and also, how this challenging problem can be managed to provide our people the essential facilities and opportunity of the optimal development of their potentials, which will be beneficial not only for them but for the society as well.