China and India

China and India, respectively, are the top two countries when it comes to population. China has approximately 1.351 billion people while India has approximately 1.237 billion people, but India is growing more rapidly than China because of the difference between the way India regulates their population and the way China regulates theirs. This is also why it is believed that India will surpass China by 2025.

One way that both countries deal with the population problem is through government programs and policies. One of these policies for China is the One-child policy. This policy was introduced into China in 1979. It states that each family is only allowed to have one child. It is estimated that this policy alone has averted 200 million births between 1979 and 2009. Since the policy was implicated a few negative consequences have occurred for example an increase in forced abortion, female infanticide, underreporting of female births, and China’s sex imbalance. If you do not follow this policy you will be given a fine that are imposed based on the income of the family and other factors. As years have gone by the Chinese government has become less strict , and they have even changed the rule that ,now, families can have two children if one parent is an only child. This policy has affected China’s fertility rate and the male to female ratios in China drastically.

        In India Family planning programs are being used in order to regulate population. In the early 1970s Indira Gandhi implemented a forced sterilization program but later failed. It stated that men with two children of more had to submit to sterilization, but many unmarried young men, political opponents and ignorant ,poor man were also believed to have been sterilized. This program is still remembered in India as a failure and has hampered India’s government programs for decades. Now, India is promoting the use of contraceptive methods like birth control. Since India has started doing this the usage percentage has raised from 13% in 1970 to 48% in 2009. By 1996, this program had been estimated to have averted 168 million births. Although this program has affected India fertility rate, it has not affected it enough for it to decline far enough to reach the replacement rate.

        The mindset of people have also changed which is causing either an increase or decrease in each countries population. The mindset of the people in China, now ,is that population is a burden and that is why we are seeing a steady decrease in the fertility rate in China. People there have over reacted to the idea that the population is growing so much that one day the world while become to overpopulated causing the resources to be depleted that they have decided that in order to stop this we need to stop having so much children. The old mindset of Chinese people is that males are valuable than females causing an unbalanced sex ratio.