Baby boom
On the first day of 2021, as many as 14,161 babies were born in Pakistan. Most developing countries, already overcrowded, saw the birth of thousands of babies on the first day of the new year. India tops the list where nearly 60,000 new babies were born on the day. Experts are attributing the large number of births on New Year to the prolonged lockdown in these countries in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. This is not much surprising as during pandemics and wars, in the latter case when blackout is resorted to, a baby boom is experienced.
Another reason for the phenomenon is that people could not get access to contraceptives. People were also unable to get other kinds of medical attention necessary for planned families. The new arrivals in the world will have to be fed, clothed, provided with home, healthcare, education, and other facilities for survival. So it is necessary to strike a happy balance between resources and population. Experts like Malthus have emphatically emphasised this point. What Malthus and others have stressed is that the human population increases at a much faster rate than the resources that support them. Now most developing countries are overcrowded, though in recent years many of them have achieved a marked success in bringing down their population to a sustainable level. Developed countries have low birth rates, hence low population.
It is generally seen that people with low income tend to have large numbers of children. This appears to be a paradox. However, the fact is that poor people prefer to have large families because they have little to fall back upon in their old age when they are physically weak to work. There is a strong case for providing social security to all, especially to people coming from low-income groups. If population explosion is not controlled, we might see large numbers of people in poor countries starving to death. Most environmental problems are caused by overpopulation and overconsumption. We ought to avoid seeing a sea of hunger.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 4th, 2021.
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