Prof Mithilesh Kumar Sinha
Department of Economics, NU Lumami
With the first cries of a new-born baby on 15th of November 2022 the United Nations celebrated the "Day of 8 Billion” on which the world population is projected to reach eight billion, as per the World Population. According to estimates, the global population is projected to grow around 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100.
To 8 billion population in the world, India’s contribution is 180 million i.e. 18% and India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country during 2023.More than half of the projected increase in global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in just eight countries: Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzaniathe human family also faces a plethora of challenges.
Reaching eight billion people is “a sign of human success, but it’s also a great risk for our future. It is a huge blow to the world’s sustenance which is already fragile owing to the prevailing winds of chaos. Ever since, the unbridled rise in population was never restricted, of which consequences may be mass migration, overcrowded slums and mega cities covering continents, diseases and pollution, chaos and violence for energy, water and food shortages and the list goes on. Growing population poses challenges such as inequality, hunger, climate crisis, galloping urbanisation and ageing. Having more people on Earth puts more pressure on nature, as people compete with wildlife for water, food and space. Meanwhile, rapid population growth combined with climate change is also likely to cause mass migration and conflict in coming decades. It is a matter of worry that eight billion people is too many for the planet, most experts say the bigger problem is the overconsumption of resources by the wealthiest people.
We shall witness in coming decades more hungry mouth. A whopping 828 million people are still going hungry across the globe. As per UN estimates As many as 14 million children suffer from severe acute malnutrition. A total of 45% of children are dying worldwide because of hunger and related causes. From 2019 to 2022, the number of undernourished people grew by 150 million.
Summing up, rapid population growth makes eradicating poverty, combating hunger and malnutrition, and increasing the coverage of health and education systems more difficult the policy makers and the leaders of the world need to make a concrete policy for slowing the growth of population.
