I come from the most populous state of this country, Uttar Pradesh, and this Holi, just one day before the festival, me and my family , happened to go on an impromptu trip to our hometown, which is 2 hours away (by train), from the place where we live. And because it was an impromptu trip, we had to travel in the general coach as there weren’t any prior reservations, and oh my god I got to witness first hand, what it is like to be living in the most populated state of the most populated country in the world. Yes, the same reason for which the general coaches of the Indian Railways are infamous. Getting inside was a battle in itself, but even if one did manage to enter, it was so densely packed that a little space to stand without being touched was all that one could get. This, coupled with the fact that some construction work was going on, on the tracks at one of the platforms along the journey made the supposedly 2 hour long journey, an 8 hour long one. This ordeal made me really think of this bigger problem ,that my state, our country, and the world is grappling with today, this instance just being one of the manifestations of that bigger problem. The problem of overpopulation. From the most fundamental issues that I’m sure many of us would have at least once thought of , say for example the issue of air and water pollution or crimes , to the more large scale, life threatening issues like that of climate change, all in my view stem from overpopulation. Obviously, none of these issues is a monolith, a lot of factors contribute to them, but at their very core, it is this issue that fuels them all.
Every new born that comes to the world needs a lot of resources to grow up into a proper human being. Right from the primary ones like food and water , to the secondary ones like schools, hospitals, roads, parks, and many more. And in order that most of these resources are provided, clearing up of forests (for building infrastructure and agriculture), and production in the factories, (which is a carbon intensive and a waste generating process) has to take place. Now these are things that have been happening for a very long time and in fact are necessary for our sustenance. But the problem arises when these things happen at a large scale (which is bound to happen if the population keeps growing at such a rapid rate). Clearing up large areas of land on a daily basis inherently messes up with the ecological balance and leads to the extinction of thousands of species daily. Incessant production needed to meet the demands of the ever-growing populace (coupled with the culture of consumerism which fuels up even more production) inevitably leads to a lot of waste generation, which in the absence of proper regulations (which only a truly responsible state and an aware and awakened populace would care about) lead to the menace of air, water and all other kinds of pollution which all of us are victims of. So , more people means more vehicles on the road, more factories, more production , more consumption and all of this is carbon intensive and fuels up climate change, something that we’ve landed ourselves into , that is showing up as increased temperatures, erratic rainfalls, wildfires, floods etc. And our beloved Gross domestic Product, that measure of growth, development and prosperity, will also take a huge dip as a result of climate change manifesting in various forms. The developing countries and the poor of the world are the most vulnerable groups and are going to be the worst hit.
Talking of the poor, they suffer the most due to overpopulation, and are also the active contributors to the problem. Reason, lack of proper education, the unrealized fact that their suffering is because of their illusion that more hands working will simply lead to the betterment of their economic conditions. The fact is, we simply do not have enough quality institutes of education be it at the primary, secondary, or the higher education levels. We do not have quality infrastructure, faculty, there’s information arbitrage and an unequal distribution of the insufficient resources that we have. Same goes with healthcare facilities. Because of lack of proper education, skills, and unawareness, these illusions perpetuate and this vicious cycle of poverty, lack of education, unemployment and overpopulation continues. And people who haven’t had the access to proper education and upbringing more often than not resort to committing various kinds of crimes, perpetuating violence and superstitions.
And sadly, not a lot of parties have any intentions of turning the populace into an educated and aware one, because the currently poor and uneducated constitute a majority of their vote bank. So if they get educated and aware and start to understand what is it that they really require as a people and start demanding for real stuff, these people in power will have to do some real work and it won’t be as easy as giving freebies , to get people to vote for them. So what we really need at this point in time is fewer people and those who are educated , because only when the masses are aware of what their problem is and what is it that they really need can there be any disruptive , radical change in the truest sense.
Depopulation is the need of the hour.