Sociological Study of Population and its Issues

Population means the number of living entities in a particular region. The term population comes with various theories and concepts attached to it. Just as society forms the important component of study in Sociology, similarly population too is important to study. 

These concepts have a wide range of information that need to be studied for their proper understanding, thus students mostly need assignment help for the concepts. 

In the early times, Malthus came up with his theory, in his research paper writing, known as the Malthusian Theory. He came up with two assumptions:

  • That food is a necessity for existence of man.
  • That the urge for sex and passion between the sexes is necessary and will remain nearly in its present state. 

Malthus, in his research paper writing, was of the opinion that population tends to increase in geometrical progression while the agricultural production increases in arithmetic progression. 

Population was kept within the limits of resource by two types of checks:

  • The positive ones, which ultimately raised the death rates.
  • The ones which were preventive and lowered the birth rates. 

This increase and decrease of population and the theory to maintain its stability, in order to effectively manage the resources, have long been studied and worked upon to come to an exact solution for the same. 

There have been certain criticisms that the Malthusian theory had to face. And as a result of this there have been certain other theories that have found their way. One of these theories was the theory of demographic transition. This theory states that in the per-industrial era, there was a stable population due to high rates of births and deaths. Although infant mortality rates were high yet do were the fertility rates. But in the post-industrial era, there was high birth rate due to the low status of women in the society. Also, people considered children to be the gift of God and this traditional outlook gave way to more births. 

In the advanced era where science and technology are sky high, there is no place for conservative thinking therefore, there are low birth and death rates in this era. Also, the advancement of medicines and healthcare have also contributed to the same. 

This theory too was not left without any criticism. Migration and other such factors were not considered while formulating the theory and in fact, this was just a model and exact prediction of the future is not possible.  

The most important reason for the increase in the population is the concept of fertility rate. People earlier considered children to be God’s gifts that is why the fertility rates were high. In fact, the frequent cases of child marriage also add up to the same. 

People have always had a demand for boys, especially in the conservative societies like India, due to which women kept on having children till they gave birth to a boy. All this stuff added to the increase in the fertility rate and thus a higher population. 

There are both pros and cons of this higher population. People who consider that population is not a problem say that:

  • Problem is the underdevelopment of society, the subordination of the women since ages, the unequal distribution of the population, the continuous depletion of resources and thus a burden on them and the most important fact- the environmental depletion and degradation. 
  • They say that the population is becoming a deliberately created false issue and focus needs to be on the above-mentioned issues. 
  • They add up by saying that population increase is a desirable thing because it results in large number of young populations which may contribute to the nation’s development. They may support the defense of the country and also enhance the political power. 

Those who focus on the cons of this issues say that:

  • Population results in increased poverty. Just imagine you have a large family and very fewer earning members. The burden on these members, to feed the family, keeps on increasing. The family is thus deprived of the basic needs and lands up in poverty. Same happens with the state at large.
  • The population increase results in a slower economic growth. It becomes more important to feed the native population and then focus the resources on the development of economy. 
  • There is a vast evidence of food security and safety. The increasing population burdens the available resources. Those who are well to do, are able to manage their resources. But those who are poor are not able to gain efficient resources for themselves.
  • Education becomes another critical area that sees decline in such situations. A large population has to be taught and the infrastructure is not up to the standard. And of course, managing the education of too many children, too, becomes a problem for parents.
  • Health is another compromised sector in cases of higher population. The health infrastructure is not able to manage so many people at a time. Also, in cases of increasing population, the spread of disease becomes easier since people live nearby and have a high rate of socialization. 
  • A large number of people contribute immensely to the degradation of the environment. They exploit the resources available to them. To the fullest and thus ignore the idea of sustainable development. 
  • Increasing population gives way to high rates of unemployment in the region. Jobs are less and candidates for the post are more, therefore the ones not selected add up to the unemployed population. 
  • High rates of inflation may be witnessed in societies having high population. This is a direct result of the increase on burden on resources. 
  • Also, the health of females giving births is largely impacted.
  • The younger population is paid less attention on since the family’s resources dwindle by the time the younger one is born.

Therefore, these were a few points about population and its impacts on the societies. The students needing assignment help can refer to the same to make their task easier.

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