Topic: population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies.
1. Critically examine whether growing population is the cause of poverty or poverty is the mains cause of population increase in India. (250 words)
Why this question:
The question is from the static portions of the GS paper I.
Key demand of the question:
Discuss in detail the causes of growing population and the causes of poverty and in what way the two are interrelated.
Directive:
Critically examine – When asked to ‘Examine’, we have to look into the topic (content words) in detail, inspect it, investigate it and establish the key facts and issues related to the topic in question. While doing so we should explain why these facts and issues are important and their implications. When ‘critically’ is suffixed or prefixed to a directive, one needs to look at the good and bad of the topic and give a fair judgment.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Highlight the fact that Poor countries tend to have a high population growth and high population growth rate can lead to poverty. Both these phenomena are visible in India leading to a vicious cycle.
Body:
Discuss first the basic aspects of population, causes of population growth and its impact.
Explain in what way rapidly growing population can exacerbate poverty.
A high population increases the pressure on resources as they can support only a small number of people. It strains the ability of the government to provide for every citizen. It increases the competition for a limited number of jobs. Poverty on the other hand can also lead to an increase in population. Poor people tend to have more children so as to put them to work and support them economically. Poor also have lower access to education and healthcare and are not able to do family planning properly.
Conclusion:
Conclude with what needs to be done to overcome the situation and cure the issue.
