Face of the future: Economic Development Vs Population Growth.

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Dear Friends, Population growth is a problem that few of us have the courage to face upfront. It is infact the largest problem facing the world today. Never before in recorded history has the world faced such an organised assault from man. This problem negates all gains in various spheres. Human resource has today become a liability, not an asset. Sometimes it feels cruel that we are proceeding at a breakneck speed towards more sophisticated automation when labour is so cheap and the unemployment situation so acute. We are also seeing a disturbing trend where one can be gainfully employed for a very short time. By the time one approaches the late 30's one can sense the pink slip approaching. Career oppurtunities for the middle aged is restricted. The board room is getting younger by the day with young recruits occupying senior positions. The future seems bleak. One has to earn fast and earn the maximum while the going is good to keep up with the times. All our efforts at framing a corruption less society may well be a dream. Honesty and ethics are a load on the shoulder, they have to be offloaded in order to progress in the "right direction". Honesty is no longer the best policy, it is a millstone around the neck. Resource wise we are on the brink of acute scarcity of the commodities we have always taken for granted, the minimum food, water, land and natural resources. Oil is expected to last only another few decades. Vital minerals too face the same fate. Forests may wear away faster. Pollution is a threat that is looming large by the day. The routine activities of the world's population is beyond the tolerance limit of our fragile ecosystem. We are hemmed in from all sides. And yet we are surging forward,

destroying, plundering the world, in the name of growth, in the name of progress. Will the population problem ever be resolved without a catastrophe affecting the earth? It seems unlikely. War and natural calamities, epidemics of fatal diseases seem the only solution. Or is it? That is a question no one likes to answer, but the answer stares us in the face. There is no escaping it. Regards, Jagannath. Growing imbalance between the economic development and population growth http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/136252/1/6684 The

World Population Day is being marked worldwide with focus on reproductive health of young people. The growing imbalance between the economic development and population growth has been a major global challenge. The developing nations are the ones that have been confronted with the demographic imbalance as population growth has outstripped the economic growth rate. To look at the global economic balance-sheet, nearly three million people almost half of the world's population are absolute poor, who live on less than two dollars a day. The imbalance between the population and economic growth is posing a serious humanitarian crisis in the developing countries. Despite serious efforts to control high population growth, the situation is still far from satisfactory. Nepal is also not an exception and shares similar problem as other developing countries. According to experts, the economic growth needs to be at least double that of the population growth rate.

Nepal's population growth is 2.25 per cent whereas the GDP growth rate is slightly more than that. Nepal's population took only three years to reach 24.8 million from the earlier 23 million. These figures have, of course, sounded an alarm bell, which are indicative of the fact that Nepal is heading towards further humanitarian and developmental crisis if the present trend of population growth is not checked and development activities swiftly accelerated. Other development indicators, too, have not shown very positive trends. Already stung by massive poverty, huge unemployment and slow development, Nepal has already experienced several social, economic and environmental problems. As the population is growing rapidly, the nation is increasingly facing food insecurity. The growing population rate has put more stress on the natural resources, which is likely to create further catastrophes. The country is facing more environmental problems now than ever before.

Poverty and population growth appear to be twin children and it is apparent that without addressing one, the other problem cannot be solved. The other aspect that needs to be addressed is the knowledge about reproductive health among the young people. The knowledge of reproductive health helps decide the family size. This would simultaneously address poverty and check population growth. It is now imperative that serious efforts from all sides need to be made to strike a balance between the population and economic growth to ensure a sustainable future for the country and the people. Source:The Rising "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the

spirit." - Aurobindo.

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