India is the second most populous country in the world. It has the largest youth population in the world. Do you think such a vast and young population is an asset to the country rather than a burden? Express your views
Answers
The good thing about having a youthful population are that there are lots of potential workers for the future. If there is a natural resource or industry that needs lots of labour, it can be in bountiful supply. ... This hits the tax base of a country and also means that the few resources countries have are inadequate. Rising population is an asset, provided, the skills of the workforce are used to the maximum extent. If not channelized properly, it can be a liability for a nation. The population acts as a strength only when there is a potential to provide food, clothing, shelter, education, healthcare and jobs. The traditional belief that India will remain poor because its population is growing too rapidly is based on a simple logic of arithmetic. The larger the population, as a denominator, the smaller is the per capita availability of everything. In other words, the economy would have to run to standstill. This reasoning does not recognize that India’s population might be growing too rapidly because it is poor. For the poor, children are a source of supplementing family income when parents are young, and of financial support in old age. High infant mortality rates only strengthen the motivation for more children. Population growth rates are always high in the early stages of development because of demographic factors. As death rates drop because of improvements in public health systems that eliminate epidemic diseases, birth rates do not because poverty and illiteracy persist. But as income levels rise, poverty is reduced and literacy (particularly among women) spreads, birth rates also come down. The bulge in population growth rates slowly diminishes. As development leads to higher income levels, birth rates decline further to levels that merely replace the existing population. Such demographic transitions are integral to development processes. At later stages, in rich countries, birth rates might drop further so that their population declines.