China and India are the two most populous countries

in the world and together they account for almost 38 per cent of
the global population. China's population has already crossed the 1.2
billion mark and Indias is expected to exceed 1 billion around
the turn of the century. However, in recent years, the annual
growth rate of the Chinese population has slowed down, to
about 1.1 per cent, whereas in India it continues to be almost 2
per cent. Onc oui of si colc on iIis glolc livc in India; ii
occuics sccond lacc aficr CIina in oulaiion and is
rojccicd io cross CIina's oulaiion wiiI 1.5 lillion
colc ly 2050.India rcacIcd iIc lillion marl ai iIc iurn
of iIc ccniury almosi iIrcc iimcs of iis 1951 oulaiion of
361 million. India's oulaiion dcnsiiy ai 789 crsons cr
squarc milc is onc of iIc IigIcsi in iIc world wIicI is icn
iimcs iIc dcnsiiy of iIc Uniicd Siaics. And 3china there are
almost twice as many people as there are in European Union and
the United States combined. India is the only other country that
has reached the one billion mark. Together China and India
account for a third of the worlds population and 60 percent of
Asia's population. Population density: 362 people square mile as
compared to 4 per square mile in Mongolia, 72 in the United
States, and 1,188 in South Korea. The population density of
China is three times the world average of 91 people per square
mile. In Shanghai, China's largest city, there are almost 100,000
people per square mile. In 1952, India was the Iirst country in the
world to launch a mass media campaign to spread the concept oI
Iamily planning in response to population growth. China started its
family planning policy in 1970.



CHINAs Population:: 1,246,871,951 (July 1999 est.)

Age structure

0-14 years: 26% (male 169,206,275; female 149,115,216)
15-64 years: 68% (male 435,047,915; female 408,663,265)
65 years and over: 6% (male 39,824,361; female 45,014,919) (1999 est.)
Population growth rate: 0.77% (1999 est.)
Birth rate: 15.1 births/1,000 population (1999 est.)
Death rate: 6.98 deaths/1,000 population (1999 est.)
Net migration rate: -0.41 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1999 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.15 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.13 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
total population: 1.07 male(s)/female (1999 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 43.31 deaths/1,000 live births (1999 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 69.92 years
male: 68.57 years
female: 71.48 years (1999 est.)
Total fertility rate: 1.8 children born/woman (1999 est.)
The average number of children a woman will have during her lifetime, by
country or region. Between 1980 and 1995 the average fertility rate in low-
income countries and middle-income countries fell from 4.1 to 3.1, while in
high-income countries it fell from 1.9 to 1.7.

In August of 1999 India became the second country to have its
population reach the one billion mark. Although certainly a landmark, a
billion people in a country one third the si:e of the United States is more
worthy of alarm than celebration. In any country, rapid population
growth places a strain on the available resources, but in a developing
country like India, many resources are already scarce (in 1960, 0.21
hectares of farmland was available to the average Indian, 0.10hectares
in 1999, and it is thought to fall to 0.07 hectares in the next 50 years). A
quickly regenerating population exacerbates shortages of food and
water and ensures that the nations long-term growth will be hampered
by a less healthy therefore less productive work force, a greater demand
for natural resource consumption, and a higher level of environmental
degradation resulting from such consumption.
Reali:ing these consequences, India has been implementing
official family planning programs to curb population growth since the
1950s. However, Indias population has more than doubled since those
days (from 431,463,000 in 1960 to 1,014,003,800 in 2000) and current
profections predict that India has a good chance of overtaking China as
the most populated country in the world within the next half
century.%he graph below illustrates the possible profected exponential
growth paths of both countries.
n recent days, our country has once again turned attention towards
population growth and family planning programmes. For the first time in 33
years, there has been a debate in Parliament on the issue. A lot of hue and
cry was raised in Parliament as well as throughout the country by policy
makers (politicians - bureaucrats) and intellectuals. Concerns were raised,
suggestions were given, and discussions were held on the growing
population of our country. Amidst all this, media too played a significant
role.

ndia was one of the first countries to initiate family planning and population
control methods. The plan was prepared way back in 1952 but the
implementation was not proper. The 70s saw some positive steps being
taken in this direction and the 'red triangle' (symbol of family planning
programme) was popularized by the ndira Gandhi government. Soon,
there was an aggressive and full-fledged awareness campaign on
population control notwithstanding the controversies surrounding it.

From 70s till the present day, the government has spent huge amounts of
money on birth control programmes. Official figures indicate that the index
of people adopting family planning measures has increased by more than
three times. For example, it has risen from 13% in 1966 to almost 48% in
2009. But most of the people adopting contraception are from urban
background and upper class and evidently, this programme has not done
too well with the poor people of rural ndia considered to be real ndia or
Bharat. Even now, the success of this programme in the villages seems to
be a distant dream.
TotaI fertiIity rate in india: children born/woman (009 est
Year Total fertility rate Rank Percent Change Date of Information
.91 99 est.
.78 9 -.7 est.
.78 9 . est.
.7 9 -1.8 est.
7 .81 8 .9 7 est.
8 .7 8 -1.78 8 est.
9 .7 8 -1. 9 est.
1 .8 8 -1.7 9 est.