Background
India is the second most populous country in the world currently behind China, with about 1.28 billion people. Statistics have shown that India’s population is 17.3% of the world’s population. Growing at a rate of 1.58%, it is predicted that by the end of 2030, India would have more than 1.53 billion people, making it the most populous country in the world. (indiaonlinepages. n.d. para 1) More than half of the population is younger than 25 and over 65% is younger than 35. The birth rate in India is 22.22 births per 1000 people each year while the death rate is 6.4 deaths per 1000 live births. India is also the most illiterate country in the world, with the literacy rate being 74.4% as of 2011. (indiaonlinepages. n.d. para 2) India’s rapidly growing population is caused by various reasons including poverty, high fertility rate, illiteracy etc. India is the first country in the world to have a population policy when they launched the National Family Planning program back in 1952 to reduce the population growth rate. There have been positive results, but the ultimate goal was not achieved and the population has grown 3 times ever since independence from Britain 1947. (indiaonlinepages. n.d. para 4)
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