Articles
Millions, millions
Dt: 27/5/20
Millions, millions
Dr T H Chowdary*
Millions of starving migrant workers on the move, millions of jobs lost, millions of students losing classes, millions of SMSEs in distress , millions defaulting on EMIs, trillions worth of GDP evaporating - this is the swan song of people who have no responsibility to do anything right but every freedom to run down governments. Can India afford to add 15 million, (67% of them from already poor families) fed on “right to life” , public distribution system and provided “work” under NREGA and direct transfer of money to Jan Dhan bank accounts? With one child norm imposed from 1970s, China overtook India in per capita income by 1992 and by now the GDP of every country in the world except USA.
2. Our vote-mongering and government power hungry politicians and their parties are engaged in the competitive populist game, “we feed; you breed”. The result is the proportion of welfare and reservation receiving segments of population has increased by 50%. Governments’ spending has declined from Development to Welfare to Charity. The public debt of the Union and State governments is increasing faster than even the population.
3. Would not patriotic, nationalist, intellectuals of integrity exert to advocate a national population policy appropriate to the specific stage of development of the nation’s economy That the good effect of one child norm will do good to the country only after say 20 years , as in China, should not deter us from launching the one child policy right away. Recalling the following dialogue would be instructive.
The French Marshall Lyantov told his Gardener “Plant a tree tomorrow”. The Gardener said, “it won’t bear fruit for a hundred years”. The Marshall said, “In that a case, plant it this afternoon”. (From John F. Kennedy’s address to the US National Academy of Sciences in 1965).
5. The late JRD Tata pleaded, remonstrated with Jawaharlal Nehru, at the time of launching the Five Year Plans that unless population growth is contained, the plans would make no difference to the poverty of many in the country. He was summarily rebuffed. JRD persisted in writing and speaking about the need to control growth of population. The United Nations honoured him for his life-long advocacy of population control .
6. “Ignored at home by all-knowing and powerful politicians , honoured the world over applies not only JRD Tata but to several Indian scientists and economists, who emigrated and received Nobel honours. A burgeoning population under -nourished, ill-educated may produce purchasable voters but would not result in any demographic dividend . They will be millions of mouths t feed, bodies to clothe and families to house but not that many brains and hands to create wealth and ameliorate poverty. (451 words)
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