Published in IIPS Mumbai, ENVIS center, Volume 1, No. 1, March 2004

 

POPULATION, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT NEXUS: THE CHANGING SCENARIO AND EMERGING CHALLENGES

Prof. K. Radhakrishna Murthy, Dept. of Sociology, Andhra University,

Visakhapatinam-530 003, AP

 

The tiny little planet earth in which about six and half billion of us live today is already half full and within next generation or so it could fill up entirely. Occasional clusters of human species are already crowding against the edge, signaling the day when the planet will be completely filled. A careful reading of the signals indicates that pressures on the earth’s principal biological systems and energy resources are mounting. Stress is evident in each of the major biological systems - oceanic fisheries, grasslands, forests and crop lands that humanity depends on food and other sustenance essential for the survival of mankind (Brown: 1979). In large areas of the world, the exponential pressure of growing population demands on these systems has reached the point where it is impairing their productive capacity the phenomena that goes beyond Malthusian predictions.

 

As the world’s population and per capita consumption grow, the human race is using resources and generating waste faster and faster. Thus we are now beginning to see nature’s limits. Pollution of water and air, destruction of forests, diminishing grass lands and loss of fertile soil are becoming critical problems with serious consequences for health, quality of life, food production and even on the ability of the earth to support human life. The need to adapt human life simultaneously to the ‘carrying capacity’ of the earth’s biological systems and to the limits of renewable energy sources will require a new social ethic. The essence of this new ethic is accommodation –the accommodation of human numbers and aspirations to the earth’s resources and capacities. This new ethic must above all arrest the deterioration of man’s relationship to nature. Otherwise, the current levels of consumption of resources may result in diminishing nature’s future productivity- not just exhausting current supply but also “stealing our children”. Therefore, environmental protection and sound resource management are the essential parts of development Planning.  This principle is known as sustainable development, that is, meeting peoples’ current needs while preserving nature’s productive capacity for the future (Brown:1990).  

 

A major obstacle to greater progress in protecting the environment is that individual, community, national, and global interests conflict and this according to Hardin is the “tragedy of the commons”. The tragedy is that society at large pays for the pollution and resource depletion, but there is little or no incentive for individuals to curb their activities unless governments step in to represent the broader public interest (Hardin,1968). Similarly, the global environment is threatened, and yet nations find it difficult to reach agreement on how they will jointly address this threat. Much time and attention are wasted on blaming others, rich nations blaming poor nations, activist groups blaming industry, industry blaming government, and so on. What is needed instead is a broad, long term perspective, which recognizes that all development efforts are predicted on improving people’s lives and well being.

 

Both the developed and developing countries are increasingly concerned about the environment. The developed countries consume far more resources and produce more pollutants than the developing countries. For instance, the population of these developed countries comprise less than one-fourth of the world population, yet they consume roughly three-fourths of the raw materials and energy and generate three-fourths of the solid waste [Sadik:1989; Silver and Defries:1990 and Shaw:1989(a) and 1989(b)]. They also generate about 55 percent of the heat trapping atmospheric gases that are blamed for global warming (World Resources Institute: 1992). The impact of developed countries on the environment is out of proportion with their size of population because the average person consumes much more than a person in a developing nation. Hence such nations face     environmental problems as soil depletion and erosion, acid rain, water and air pollution, toxic wastes and loss of wetlands and other natural habitats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the other hand, environmental damage in developing nations has several sources: Poverty, skewed systems of land tenure, uncontrolled commercialization of natural resources, inadequate control of polluting industries, where urbanization, disease and population growth. Ironically, people’s efforts to escape from poverty also damage the environment. In their struggle to survive, poor people often have no choice but to destroy their surroundings by cutting down trees, overworking the soil, over grazing range lands and over fishing (Camp: 1989; Repetto: 1987; Sadik: 1989). 

 

     Then began an era in development economics in which investment in human capital was considered as important as other forms of investment. We witnessed considerable ferment of ideas about human resource development, a new perspective most clearly expressed and emerged in the ‘Jakarta Plan of Action’ during the year 1988. The plan focused on the central role of human beings as the key factor in the development process, called for balanced and integrated treatment of the supply and demand factors in relation to human resources development, and emphasized participation in economic activity, particularly employment. To put it more succinctly, investment in human resources has three major benefits: It is a valued consumption good, it raises productivity and lowers reproductively. Then the question is what governs the quality of human resources and how can this quality be improved? Clearly, a number of factors are relevant: the influence of parents and society at large, the influence of the school system and formal education and the person’s level of health and nutrition. Improvements in the education and health levels of a population are mutually reinforcing in a number of ways. Children of educated mothers, for example, are much more likely to survive to maturity than those of the less educated, even when one controls for income and social class; healthier children miss fewer days of school; low mortality levels means less educational investment wasted on children who die; and increasing expectation of life may explain the growing propensity of parents to invest in human capital inputs for their children. Here a mention may be made about the role of human resources development in the remarkable economic growth in parts of East and South-East Asia notably Hongkong, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, and Thailand which have led the world over the past few decades. Also notice that the human capital infrastructure could provide a spring board for growth if other elements of the development equation, namely, substantial investment in infrastructure, efficient absorption of advanced technology and a stable political environment can be put in place. Thus human resources development has been intimately tied to population dynamics in the form of growth rate of population, its age distribution, work participation rates and dependency burden etc. In view of this, it is important to recognize that, in their dual roles as both the object and a key instrument of development, people must be placed central in development planning.

 

     Mean while the Earth Summit in Rio de Generio (1992), The International Conference on Population and Development at Cairo in 1994 and the Social Development Summit in Copenhagen (1995) came up with alternative visions of development under the shades of ‘Sustainable Development’, ‘Gender Equality’ and ‘Social Development’ respectively, which provided centrality to non-economic dimensions of development. They effectively challenged the supremacy of the economic growth models that held sway for long. These alternative visions of development revolutionized even the thinking on development across the nations and more so in our country which were already getting disenchanted with pursuing the lone economic models with a materialist dream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having established this, what happens to population question? All the above platforms have rightly put population into the nexus of sustainable development strategies and recognized the social dimensions of the population problem. It is a factor in the process of generating economic growth and productivity, achieving sustainable agriculture and industrial production, energy and where it occurs. It avers that, while population is a key factor in sustainable development, smaller families and slower growth of population can be effected by free choice, gender justice and sustainable development. All this culminated ultimately in detaching family planning from demographic goals. Family Planning was given its own importance where it is the individual who decides freely how and when to practice family planning and the number of children he/she wants. Its practice is considered to be an unfettered individual right, irrespective of community or societal factors. Individual rights are further expressed through gender equality and equity where the empowerment of women is an essential part of total human development and their role is not only to be passive beneficiaries but to be active agents of change. Accordingly the current development discourse in India voices extreme concern on the distortions of development especially in the areas of population and reproductive health, malnutrition and morbidity, gender bias and inequality, environment and quality of life and poverty and inequality.

 

Also, there is now a wider understanding of the necessity for an integrated and holistic approach where intensive efforts must be made, conjointly and simultaneously to bring about significant reductions in maternal, infant and child mortality, to provide accessible, affordable and quality services for reproductive and sexual health including family planning, where measures to ensure gender equity and the empowerment of women are pursued vigorously, where universal education for both boys and girls is available up to secondary level at least, and is compulsory, and where social evils like early age at marriage, dowry and gender discrimination and violence are combated. This adds up to an extensive agenda. In the past, these components where pursued each on its own, through parallel, vertical programmes, without adequate results. Now the holistic approach demands inter-linkages and horizontal coordination.

 

Our national goals are to eliminate poverty bringing about full and productive employment and economic growth and to create a democratic society which is socially integrated without divisive tendencies where some sections are oppressed by others, where sex equality and human rights for all, form a fundamental base. Population stabilization is an integral factor in bringing about the fulfillment of such goals, and individual action through informed, voluntary choice is a means by which such stabilization can come about.

 

We have now a population policy – 2000, which encompasses the linkages between population and development and to more extent the environment. In adopting this new population policy -soon to be followed by a new Health Policy -we have the opportunity to bring a fresh out look and ways of working, discarding what has been found to be faulty or inadequate, and building on all the new knowledge and data which have accrued in the last few years. More data are now coming in on which to base more focused activities. The NFHS—II is a valuable document in throwing more light on the current demographic scene in the country. The only thing is we need to work with a sharpened focus, expertise and momentum. Our national population policy out lines the immediate objective of meeting unmet needs, the medium objective of a TFR of 2.1 by the year 2010 and stable population by 2050 in the long run.

 

The vast area of action where attitudinal and behavioral changes by the people are the sinequa non-for success, is essential, not only for population stabilization but for the population - development - environment nexus which leads to full development. This is where public information and education are vital, and public opinion, support and action must be continuously built up and sustained without slackening. It is obvious that we have a long way to go, and must priorities with a strong concentration on certain aspects. Ultimately there are three vital steps we must take - to adopt a wide vision, a holistic approach, and invoke the participation of all the people. This would provide the fundamental base for the changing scenario in the coming years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the name of shortsighted economic model of development, we have lost sight of what development should entail in a country where poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and morbidity are still acutely prevalent and prevail. That is the reason why while every one in the past-considered economic development as apriority condition and an essential instrument of social transformation nobody thinks now and willing to share that it alone can bring about social transformation and a desired vision of development.

 

   Social development may be viewed as sustainable human development, which in turn is defined as enhancing human capabilities for enhancing human choices. Here the main contention is that “human development or capabilities could be advanced by the state’s promotion of two kinds of synergies: one, between interventions in nutrition, health, education and fertility; and two, at a macro-level, between income growth and the reduction in the dispersion of income so that poverty declines and social development takes place” (Lance Taylor et al:1997). Development policy and practice can be very effective if these synergies are identified and promoted deliberately by state action. Here we should lay stress on a very important value judgment which places high intrinsic value on social services provision and poverty reduction, but not as effective instruments of value that promote growth which leads to two very pertinent policy implications:

 

(1) The first type of synergy between social interventions when viewed as ends and not as means — induces a more integrated and holistic approach in place of a fragmented approach resulting in enhanced efficiency in social policy implementation and in the use of scarce resources, and

(2) The frame work for formulating and evaluating main stream policies is also totally changed. It is now people centered. Fiscal, monetary, exchange rate and foreign trade policies have equity implications and so have to be analyzed and evaluated by taking into consideration their effects on income poverty reduction and social development, and, the reverse feed-back effects also.

   In the ultimate analysis one should remember that the progress and prosperity of a nation depend not only on the material resources at its command, but to a greater extent upon its human endowments which in turn are influenced and determined by demographic processes at work. Human capital formation and development which is the process of increasing the knowledge, skills and capacities of the population and its effective utilization, plays a strategic role in social and economic development of any nation. The up gradation of mental ability and increase in physical ability tend to the formation of human capital. The interaction between human resource formation and development, socio-economic development, and demographic transition is a three dimensional process.

   The real utility of the Tenth plan document therefore probably lies in its being a vision statement, a Comprehensive survey of what needs to be done in economic and social spheres to achieve a desired level of prosperity. Such an approach cannot be very original. It is often a rehash of what has been preached for a while with little to show by way of results.  The Tenth plan has quite laudably set out monitor able social goals such as reduction in poverty ratio, increase in literacy and reduced infant mortality. Despite early misgivings, the plan document’s road map needs to be examined carefully.

   In this new millennium, nations are judged by the well-being of their peoples, by levels of health, nutrition and education, by the civil and political liberties enjoyed by their citizens, by the protection guaranteed to children and by provisions made for the vulnerable and the disadvantaged.  The vast numbers of the people of India can be its greatest asset if they are provided with the means to lead healthy and economically productive lives. Population stabilization is a multi-sectoral endeavour requiring constant and effective dialogue among a diversity of stakeholders, and coordination at all levels of the government and society. Spread of literacy and education, increasing availability of affordable reproductive and child health services, convergence of service delivery at village levels, participation of women in paid work force, together with a steady, equitable improvement in family incomes, will facilitate early achievement of the socio-demographic goals envisaged in the Tenth plan. Its success will be achieved if the Action Plan contained in the National Population Policy - 2000 is pursued as a national movement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

REFERENCES:

 

Brown, L.R. 1979: “The Twenty-Ninth Day: Accommodating Human Needs and Numbers to the Earth’s Resources”  Radhakrishna Prakashan, New Delhi.,

 

Brown, J.W. 1990  “U.S. Policy in the crucial decade ahead” In J.W. Brown (ed) In The U.S. interest, West View Press, Boulder, Colorado,

 

Camp, S.L. , 1989. “Population Pressure, Poverty and the Environment”,Population Crisis Committee, Washington.

 

Lance Taylor, Santosh Mehrotra & EriqueDelamonica, 1997: “The Links Between Economic Growth, Poverty Reduction and Social Development: Theory and Policy”, in Santosh Mehrotra and Richard Jolly (Ed) Development with a Humn Face: Experiences in Social Achievement and Economic Growth, Clrendon Press, Oxford.

 

Repetto, R. 1987 “Population, Resources, Environment : An Uncertain Future”, Population Bulletin 42(2).

 

Sadik, N. 1989, “Safeguarding the Future, “New York: United Nations Population Fund.

 

Shah, R.P. 1989(A): “Population Growth: Is it ruining the environment?” Populi, 16(2)

 

Shah, R.P. 1989(B): “Rapid Population Growth and Environmental Degradation: Ultimate Versus Proximate factors”, Environmental Conservation, (16:30) Autumn.

 

Silver, C.S. and Defies, R, 1990: One Earth, one Future: Our Changing Global Environment, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.  

 

 

This Bulletin is a quarterly non priced publication of ENVIS Node "Population-ENVIS" at Data Centre, International Institute for Population Sciences, Deonar,Mumbai. The node is supported by funds from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, under EMCBTA Project of World Bank. The node is building databases on information related to Population - Environment and expertise available in the region and on going activities. The content of the Bulletin may be quoted or reproduced for non-commercial use, provided source is duly acknowledged. Request for subscription may be sent at the address given. Contributions to the bulletin are welcome.

Principle Investigators:
Prof. T.K. Roy
Prof. C.P. Prakasam


Technical Assistance:
Mr. S. Radhakrishnan
Mrs. P. Ramani