Overpopulation in India Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Overpopulation in India - Research Paper Example It has been said that among the government’s duties and responsibilities is to care for the people under its subjection, feeding them and providing them with the means to make their living – and the education necessary for them to do so. In this regard, some countries do better than others, even succeeding on many levels, allowing its citizens to enjoy life to the fullest. There are also countries that instead fail miserably, due to the untimely interplay of certain factors. Unfortunately, whether this failure results from an actively malevolent government, or from a merely neglectful one, the result is still the same; it is the people who suffer. Sometimes, though, it so happens that while the government may indeed be willing to care for its citizens, the fact that there are just too many of them may prove to be a hindrance. After all, the government will always be composed of human beings who are flawed, and will consequently be unable to watch over every single citizen living in the country at all hours. Even worse is that some governments may not be that effective at providing for their far-too-many citizens to begin with, resulting in widespread suffering all over the country. It is bad enough that, for whatever reason, these countries find it difficult to provide their citizens with at least the basic level of care and support that they need. But when there are too many people in one place, the government’s already limited ability to provide for its citizens becomes even more constrained. And when this happens, people suffer – which can then give rise to a whole new range of issues. Sadly, such countries st ill do exist in this day and age. For instance, China’s status as one of the world’s superpowers has done little to alleviate the suffering of its 1.3 billion people, no thanks to issues such as corruption and poor legislation. And considering how the issue of overpopulation is a major, major concern even in economically powerful countries, the same can be assumed to be just as applicable in the case of the many developing countries all over the world, maybe even more so. This particular paper focuses on the issue of overpopulation in the Indian nation in the context of concurrent environmental issues, analyzing it in comprehensive detail in order to hopefully suggest solutions to the problem. Additionally, the main problem of overpopulation shall also be connected to other pervading issues within the country in order to shed more light on the situation. Overpopulation in India – Poor Water Sanitation The deplorable state pervading in India is definitely a disqu ieting sight to behold. Not only does it share the same problem of overpopulation with the People’s Republic of China, it does not even have a strong economy to help it cope effectively with the problem. This becomes an even more urgent concern when one takes into account how India’s population is exceeded only by the Chinese, and how even this state of affairs may not last much longer. More to the point, the fact that India is exceeded by one other country in terms of overpopulation does not make it any less overpopulated. Indeed, unlike China, India cannot adequately rely on its economy to compensate for its excess where the population is concerned. For while the steady and consistent growth of the Indian economy is definitely a positive sign, it loses much of its meaning when one considers the horrendously skewed wealth distribution pervading in India, so much so that 33% of the income is earned by the top 10% of income groups (Civil Society Information Exchange, 20 03). The Indian government’s ability to provide for its people is already severely limited on its own, and is further stretched to the breaking point in its efforts to provide for its 1.1 billion citizens (Hoevel, 2007). This same source also quotes the US Census Bureau, which estimates that this number will have ballooned further by 700 million people by the year 2050, noting that