Thomas Robert Malthus was an English economist. He wrote a book titled “Essay on the principle of population” in 1798, and also published its second edition with some modification in 1803. According to his book, “By nature human food increases in a slow arithmetical ratio; man himself increases in a quick geometrical ratio unless want and vice stop him. The increase in numbers is necessarily limited by the means of subsistence population invariably increases when the means of subsistence increase, unless prevented by powerful and obvious checks.”
This is called the Malthusian theory of population.
A human being is endued by nature with great fecundity just like any other animals. The population of a country increases at a very high rate. If the food supply increases at a slow rate but population increases rapidly, the country will have to face serious problems like malnutrition, famine, disease and pertinence. These problems may lead to wars between various countries.
According to Malthus, all these problems are positive checks. Due to the operation of the positive checks, the population will be reduced and then balanced with the food supply of the economy.
Due to the inherent nature of human beings to increase their population, the size again increases, and the balance between the population and food supply is again disturbed. And this cyclical theory is known as the Malthusian cycle.
So, it is very important to control the growth of population. Therefore, to avoid the unfortunate cyclical movements, he suggests measures to control the growth of population, and calls them ‘preventive checks’. These can range from late marriages, self-restraint during marital life, celibacy etc. In this theory, he said that if the growth of population is unchecked by the use of preventive checks, positive checks will take away the surplus population.
Recently, the state government of Assam approved a new population policy called the “Population and Women Improvement policy of Assam.” A strict two-child norm has been ordered to ensure its implementation by April 1, 2018. Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, presenting the policy said that, “We want to control the population explosion, but not through cohesive measure rather we are looking a process of incentives and disincentives.”
According to the policy, persons with more than two children will not be eligible to apply for government jobs and any kind of government services, including that of becoming members of the panchayat and civic bodies. It also said that, “Families with more than two children will also not be eligible for various benefits under different government schemes.” The main spirit of the draft, according to the government, is to empower women to take responsible decisions with regard to reproductive healthcare and ensure male participation in the process.
According to Sarma, the state population has registered a one crore increase between 2001 and 2017. And if we look deep into the population growth, we will find that there is a rapid growth among the religious minority community. The rate of population growth is higher in the minority-dominated districts. The reason behind such behaviour is that health care and education services are very low in those particular districts. There is also the widespread problem of early marriage adding to the problem.
Assam is facing a dangerous population explosion that has necessitated the new population policy. The rise in the population is not only badly affecting the economy and the political front but also the socio-culture aspect of Assam.
Increasing population leads to various types of problems like mass poverty. With the size of the population growing, the degree of poverty in Assam started to increase. The increased population has resulted in a huge unemployment problem. Mass illiteracy is also a common reason for the increasing population. Illiteracy has the potential to make people superstitious and conservative, and thus they do not understand how to control population, or they might not want to adopt this population control measures and initiative.
As Robart Malthus stated, if the growth of the population is unchecked by the use of a preventive check, e.g. the new population policy; positive checks like war, famines, epidemics, etc., will control the surplus population.
So, it is high time the government takes these kinds of strict preventive checks. If the government fails to take some serious initiative, the future of the state is not very bright. So, we should support the government, despite our political inclination, and do the part that the government has given to us sidelining our cast creed religious identity.