B.com Part 1 Essay No. 5. POPULATION EXPLOSION

POPULATION EXPLOSION

OUTLINE:

1.     Concept of over-population.

2.     Intensity of the problem.

a.     It checks the economic prosperity.

b.     A major cause of unemployment.

c.      Problem of habitation.

d.     It causes social disorder and increase in crimes.

3.     Alarming causes of the problem:

a.     More children and agricultural development.

b.     Early- age marriages.

c.      Lack of proper education.

4.     How one can cope with the situation.

5.     Role of the variation departments.

6.     Conclusion.

Population of a country is one of the sources of its strength. It supplies men for its armed forces, industry, agriculture, administration and other social economic and political activities. If a country gives proper education and training to its millions of people, they can earn and produce not only for themselves but also for the world at large. The increased production and export of goods can thus make this country rich and strong. But the size of the population should be well within the means of the country.

The statistical data collected recently shows that the population of Pakistan has doubled during the last ten years. This is alarming indeed. There is a great need to have effective check on population growth. Majority of people are illiterate and orthodox. They believe that God Himself is responsible for providing livelihood to all the living creatures. Why, then men should be afraid of having more children to be fed and brought up. Thy do not know that God has made man independent and fully responsible for what he does. We are quite free to make life better or worse for ourselves.

Our population is increasing very fast. It is very difficult to provide jobs to such a large number of people. Which increase every year. Our country is underdeveloped and its sources are limited. Moreover our country is ruled bu feudal lords and capitalists. There does not exist just and fair distribution of wealth and other sources in the country. The country is sharply divided into two classes “haves and have-nots”. This is a sad state of affairs but this is a bitter reality which we have to endure.

Rapid population growth poses serious threat to the economy of poor and developing countries like Pakistan. It has many disadvantages for the economic progress of the country. First, since the sources of national income are limited, the rapid addition in eating mouths leads to the scarcity of essential commodities. Thus the food problem in Pakistan has become chronic like wheat, sugar, edible oils etc.

Over-population is also responsible for the problem of widespread unemployment and constantly rising prices in Pakistan. The Government is finding it difficult to provide the facilities like schools, hospital, roads, houses etc. to the ever increasing number of people. If this state of affairs continue, it will results in general unrest and political revolution.

Another problem which results from over population is that ever increasing population creates housing and settlement problem. It becomes difficult for the individual and the society to overcome them.

The increase in population means an increase in the crime rate. When the people do not get jobs, when they do not get the proper facilities, they get frustrated and become revengeful against the society. Due to this factor the crime rate increases. The rise in crimes makes an atmosphere of fear. The people are oscillating between uncertainty and fear.

The genesis of the situation reflects some obvious reasons. A major is the tradition of having join family system. This system puts less burden of bringing up of children on the parents. As the parents have minimum expenditures so they tend to produce more children.

Lack of education especially health education and conventional ideas are another cause of overpopulation. The illiterate people having strange notions do not realize the importance of small family and tend to have babies without taking their means into consideration.

Islam itself presents the solution to this problem. In the Holy Quran God says, “And mothers should suckle their children for tow whole years.” This means that an intervening space of about three years should elapse between one pregnancy and another. Pakistan cannot be put on the path to progress unless we change our attitude, control our population on the path to progress unless we change our attitude, control our population and increase our food production.

The Government and the other organization should develop awareness among the people to accept this issue as a problem. As there are many who do not take the issue of overpopulation as a problem. If we want to keep pace with the rest of the world, we will have to deal with the problem seriously. We will have to join hands to cope with the issue of over-population.