According to the World population Prospectus: The Revision released by the United Nations, India with 1.3 billion inhabitants would surpass China’s population of 1.4 billion by 2024, to become the World’s populous country.

The following are the various effects of rapid growth of population in developing countries in general and India in particular :

• Educated people aspire for jobs of greater prestige. Since, creating employment is capital intensive, the ability of economy to create employment opportunities to its huge population gets restricted. As a result, unemployment of educated persons increases. This results in wastage of human capital.

Over-strained Infrastructure :

Rapid growth of population puts pressure on facilities like housing, transportation, health care, and education. In India, there prevails a situation of “over urbanization” which puts unbearable pressure on urban amenities and infrastructure. The following are the common features of urban areas in developing countries like India:

• Traffic congestions,
• Overcrowded houses,
• Slums and unhygienic dwelling areas,
• Congested public places and public transport, etc.

Pressure on Natural Resources :

• Over-population has put tremendous pressure on natural resources like land, water, unpolluted air etc. These resources are over-exploited to a point beyond their renewable capacity. Over-utilization of resources results in depletion of ground water, desertification and causes undesirable damage to environment.

Increase in Cost of production :

• With increase in population increases the cost of production of basic necessities of life such as food. Increase in population also requires more lands to be brought under cultivation using costly irrigation.

Inequitable distribution of income :

• With increase in population, income disparity increases at the national level. Though, the gross national product (GNP) of an economy increases, per capita income decreases owing to rapidly growing population. As a matter of fact, the developing countries are focussed only on economic growth leaving aside the issue of population explosion. As a result, the inequitable distribution of income tends to further increase.

Other Effects :

• These include poor standard of living; prevalence of disease and malnutrition; poverty; mismanagement on agricultural resources; political unrest and upheaval; problem of utilization of manpower.