India has overtaken China to become the most populous country in the world, suggests data from a newly released United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report on April 19. According to the UNFPA’s The State of World Population Report, 2023, India’s population has reached 1,428.6 million while China’s stands at 1,425.7 million — a difference of 2.9 million. The UN’s World Population Prospects 2022 had also projected India to surpass China as the world’s most populous country during 2023.
However, China is doing better than India in the context of life expectancy, which in the case of women is 82 and 76 that of men. The figures for India are 74 and 71, according to the report. The Indian survey findings suggest that population anxieties have seeped into large portions of the general public. Yet, population numbers should not trigger anxiety or create alarm. Instead, they should lead policy makers to create policies that uphold reproductive rights and choices.
The report also highlighted the issues of women’s decreased right to bodily autonomy. 44 per cent of partnered women and girls in 68 reporting countries do not have the right to make informed decisions about their bodies on matters of sex, contraception and seeking health care. Millions of women worldwide have an unmet need for safe, reliable contraception. So many women lack control over their bodies, including the right to have children – to decide when they want to have them and how many.
The overwhelming population burden is causing a resource crunch on resources like hospitals, food grains, houses, or employment. Education helps in bringing down fertility and early birth among women. India is at a stage of demographic transition where mortality rates are declining and fertility rates would decline in the next two to three decades or so. This leads to a scope to cut population growth because India still has a positive growth rate, but our population policy should keep in mind the larger consequences of zero population growth.
According to the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (2019-21), India’s unmet need for contraception is 9.4 per cent, indicating that even when couples want to adopt a contraceptive method, it is not available to them. Moreover, early and forced marriages continue to happen – with nearly one out of every four women in India married before they turn 18. Family and social norms have been pushing women into marriage and motherhood – leaving them without a choice.
Even as India becomes the most populous country in the world, the programmatic discourse should focus on ensuring that comprehensive and equitable services are available to people regardless of where they live or which strata of society they belong to. At the same time, we need to make sure that girls and women are not pushed into early marriages and pregnancies, which limit their aspirations. The government must create policies that promote gender equality in the workplace, and universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
