Saturday, June 22, 2019

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Need to improve quality of life in India' that was published in Newsband


Need to improve quality of life in India
India is set to become the most populous nation; improving the quality of life is crucial. National leaders must redouble their efforts to raise education, health and living standards for people everywhere. They must singularly focus on improving education and health access for women.
There is a rise in life expectancy. There is a growing population of older adults. It opens up prospects for employment in many new services catering to them. Urban facilities have to be reimagined, with an emphasis on access to good, affordable housing and mobility.
There is need to make progress in poverty reduction, greater equality, better nutrition, universal education and health care, needs state support and strong civil society institutions. Making agriculture remunerative and keeping food prices stable are crucial to ensure nutrition for all.
Many young career oriented women have been refusing to have more than one child; often have none at all. Thus entrants into the country's labour force are declining in nos. Within only 10-12 years we have very few and declining trained personnel to take over the basic service and production systems. Serious manpower planning is necessary in India.
There is the dire need for controlling population. We should have a national population policy. We cannot afford to multiply like rats having regard to the limitations of land availability, production of food grains and other produce for feeding the population. Instead it is advocating the need for producing more for meeting the demands of the rising population. Whenever we talk of population policy, it becomes a religious issue with certain sections of minorities opposing it.
Fundamental indicators of quality of life include have sufficient nutrition, adequate accommodation and environment, social and psychological fulfilment, and health. However, modern development is responsible for creating and/or facilitating many of the world's evils. They include a sense of spiritual and cultural loss, environmental degradation, rapid population growth, Third World debt, social unrest, unemployment, vastly increased capabilities of humanity's destructive potential and a sense of declining societal standards.
It seems the two child norm followed from the early days has taken a back seat these days. Brushing aside such stipulations there are certain group of people who feels  that their number in the nation is comparatively less and should gear up for more kids. So regardless of the community one belongs to, an equally  applicable population policy needs to be implemented. Education remains the prelude to achieve such an objective.
We need to take immediate steps to curb the growing population as it will hinder the path of developing nation. India must seek support from other countries who needs manpower. India could become the supplier of skilled manpower that will benEfit both countries.
China's population has been declining gradually since the application of one child policy and a noticeable reduction in its population is now on the surface. India will become the most populated country in the world because of its enormous number of existing population which is on the 2nd rank worldwide and the effective as well as rapid actions taken by other countries to reduce their population will also push India towards the 1st rank.
Huge Indian population & ranking as the most populated country in the world by 2025 is not a great achievement under any circumstances. In fact there is an urgent need to control population in the country which is already running out of valuable resources like water besides climate change destruction of flora & fauna & forests causing damage to the environment & global warming with high toxic air content making living a night mare. India in the future will pay a heavy price if it neglects controlling the population as there can be less jobs & food scarcity

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