Population Growth
A Challenge To Development

By Uttam Maharjan

THE final results of the 10th National Population Census (NPC) put the population of Nepal at 23.2 million, which exceeded the previous census data by 4.7 million. The population growth rate was put at 2.24 per cent as against 2.10 per cent recorded in the previous census. Similarly, the census enumerated 4.2 million households and put the family size at 5.5 members.

Congestion

The geographical distribution of population is uneven in Nepal. The country, which is divided into mountanious, hilly and terai regions, has disproportionate distribution of population. As per the census data, the Himalayan region has a population of 1.62 million (6.97 per cent), the hilly region 10.2 million (43.97 per cent) and the terai 11.38 million (49.06 per cent). In terms of area, the Himalayan region covers 15 per cent of the land, the hilly region 68 per cent and the terai 17 per cent.

The census found more people living in rural areas (19.9 million or 85.8 per cent) than in urban areas (3.3 million or 14.2 per cent), Kathmandu was found to be housing 1.09 million (4.7 per cent), which was 60.29 per cent up from the previous census figure of 0.68 million.

All these population parameters speak the fact that population is growing in alarming proportions and that urban areas are getting congested day by day. With the present growth rate of 2.24 per cent, the population of the country will double itself in 30 years. This is a very serious problem, given the unsatisfactory performance of the overall economy of the country, including the agricultural sector.

Why is population growth at a galloping rate, when food production is declining? The realisation of the correlation between population growth and food production was felt more than two centuries ago by Thomas R. Malthus (1766-1834), an English economist who, through his book called An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), propounded an epoch-making theory that stipulates that population tends to surpass food production, resulting in widespread poverty and degradation unless the population is controlled either by moral restraint or by natural factors like disease, famine, war or other disasters.

At one point, Malthus also pointed out that population would tend to grow in a geometric proportion, whereas food production in an arithmetic proportion. Although such a proportion has not exactly taken shape, she gist of the proportion, no doubt, indicates the horrendous consequences of population growth and serves as a warning to all the countries in the world to curb population growth and give adequate attention to the food production.

In the present-day context, the Malthusian warning is like water off a duck’s back. The world population is growing instead of declining. The world population has already crossed the 6 billion mark and the two Asian giants, India and China, alone have over 2 billion people.

The population of Nepal, when compared to that of India of China, seems to be negligible. But given the land area and the level of economic development, the population is quite high.

Nepal is a predominantly agrarian country, where over 81 per cent of the population depends on agricultural and allied activities to eke out a living and over 85 per cent of the populace resides in rural areas. It is, therefore, evident that without developing agricultural and boosting rural economy, the overall development of the country cannot be achieved. As rural folk are illiterate and ignorant due to lack of education, they are generally superstitious and stick to social misconceptions. Although financially uptight and hence unable to raise even existing families, they would not hesitate to add more and more members to their families. The son-centred concept, which has entrenched itself not only in rural society but also in elite society has been a major contributing factor to the population growth. Moreover, the high rate of child death compels the poor parents to have more children so that at least one child will survive to serve them as the staff of their old age.

Another contributing factor to population growth is the widespread prevalence of gender bias at all societal levels, be it underpriviledged or highly privileged.

Although feminists are pushing ahead the women’s lib movement throughout the country, women are still treated as second-class citizens and are deprived of even reproductive rights. So it is imperative to impart education to women on an equal footing with men and also to provide them with gainful employment so that they can stand on their own feet and make decisions for themselves.

Education, is thus, a powerful tool for raising social awareness among people regarding the need for controlling rampant population growth. It is certainly easier to explain to the educated masses the importance of birth control by various family planning methods. A decline in population growth will throw open employment and income generating opportunities and systematise the use of natural resources for development. Better education and other facilities will surely produce quality manpower, which will set the stage for overall national development.

Concrete Programme

It, therefore, follows that what we need at this juncture is concrete programmes, not just rhetoric and tall talks, to contain booming population. At governmental level, we already have the Ministry of Population and Environment. The government should, therefore, take effective measures to keep population at an acceptable level so that a quality of life may be given to its citizenry by enhancing national development. Here, the role of civil society and NGOs engaged in population control activities cannot be passed up.

Amendments Needed In SA Politics

By Khilendra Basnyat

THE political dynamics of South Asia are shaped more by ethnic, tribal, regional, sun-national and religious identities. Hence, political parties in this region seem to find their genesis in caste, class and other forms of social and economic hierarchies.

In fact, caste might preordain political parties’ development with the key posts occupied by the Brahmins and Chhetris in Nepal and in India’s by rigid caste structure. In Pakistan, political parties are still the other forms of the feudal and affluent classes. In Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, family and personality factors determine the origin and continuity of political parties.

Constitutional Element

In post-colonial South Asia, various kinds of constitutional elements give birth to group caste, ethnic and regional configuration which are also used for political mobilisation. If one fails to comprehend the interface of a class, caste, ethnic, religious, sub-national and parties, it not only becomes ardous to locate the political parties but will also be virtually impossible to show the interrelationship between the parties and governments.

Since the creation of political parties has been a continuous process, South Asia, barring India and Sri Lanka, has had intermittent experiences of parties’ role in the process of governments.

In Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, the spell of authoritarian regime tried to incapable political parties taking them as foreign imports or unnatural to the regimes innovated by the new rulers. However, due to the problems of legitimacy, they revived old political parties with which they could present a semblance of the representative character of these regimes.

India, except for a brief emergency period, and Sri Lanka have been able to retain their democratic character throughout although endemic crises were faced by them.

The most serious menace to the democratic process in South Asian countries lies in the degeneration of democratic institutions. In these countries, the quality of parliamentary discourse has deteriorated.

The degeneration in the quality of the legislatures appears to be augmented by the increasingly confrontational style of politics.

Actually, South Asia’s parliamentary does not do what it should and strives to do what it should not. The use of parliament as a political battleground has compromised its effectiveness as an instrument of restraint on executive behaviour and the apex law-making body in most countries of this region.

It has been realised that the bureaucratic growth in South Asia has encouraged political interference planned to abuse the recruitment process as an instrument of political patronage and for politicisation of administration . This process has encouraged political opportunism among the bureaucrats rather than promoting independence of thoughts and actions. Moreover, it has protected the incompetent and corrupt from being exposed to disciplinary action and ultimately undermined the integrity and efficiency of administration.

Under these conditions, political parties, interests are directly opposed to people’s interests. Their main motive is to capture and retain power from both the politicians and their supporters. Representing, the people is not their major objective.

In most Asian countries, each political party seemed to have developed its own vested interests and none of these prepared to dissolve its identity in preference to its own self-interests. In these countries, high ranking people misuse public offices to promote their public agendas and interests, whether political or otherwise. Democratisation of these countries has brought the problems of governance to the fore. There is a general feeling among the people of this region that they have governments but no governance.

In these countries, the so-called politicians are inspired only by the just for power. Actually, this shortcoming cannot be blamed on the constitution. Its source has to be sought in the kind of ruling classes that have developed through the manipulation of the electoral system. They have been using their power for their own benefits, denying people’s constitutional rights. This has led to increasing people’s alienation from the government and political parties from their own constituencies.

In such a situation, the South Asian people are more and more confounded with the present political system. The middle-class youths are becoming cynical.

In fact, politics should be for strengthening democracy, people’s fundamental rights and overall development. The objective of all political parties should be to strengthen the people’s rights, raise their living standard and ensure overall and sustainable social and economic development of their respective countries.

Despite the common objective and goal, political parties do not seem to have chalked out a common strategy and approach for their national development and improve the social as well as economic status of the people at large. In many cases, political parties and politicians still appear to be bogged down in their petty partisan interests even on the development issue. This is one of the impediments in the development strategies and campaigns.

Till now, there is no active people’s participation in politics. However, such participation should be intensified in this region to help expedite various kinds of activities development. In addition, social groups such as women, the low-caste groups and the very poor must be assisted by the political process to access capabilities and to expand their stockholding in their respective countries’ affairs.

Presently, South Asian countries need leadership of high caliber and quality as survival of democracy institutions and hopes of sustainable development depend on the ability of these countries to throw up strong and patriotic leaders, honest and disciplined men and women imbued with a spirit of social service.

None of the major South Asian countries has a healthy two or three political parties based on distinct ideologies, policies and programmes evolved. With the existence of a large number of parties, the existing political system has often resulted in candidates being elected only with a minority of votes cast. Sometimes the number of votes received by a candidate is only ten to twenty per cent, thereby creating legitimate doubts about the representative credential of those elected.

A healthy system of political parties based on ideological and programme must evolve, restricting the number of political parties. Political parties must themselves be democratic in their internal organisations. They need to be regulated and disciplined. Apart from this, party membership should be open to all citizens, and party elections must be regular, free and fair. The sources of parties’ funds should not only be declared but also open to scrutiny.

Actually, constitution, rule of law and democratic institutions cannot be expected to last long in a situation of feudalism, mass illiteracy and poverty. Therefore, endeavours at land reforms, economic development and educating the populace is very essential.

Proper Care

In reality, politics will be meaningful if it is used to utilise resources, to decide priorities and to formulate plans for the equitable allocation of funds by the state to the regions. Such allocation should be based on arbitrary and subjective considerations but should take proper care of objective factors.

Speaking Of Children

UPON entering the guestroom of his in-laws the other day, this pen pusher discovered Sandesh watching Cartoon Network, a television channel designed for children, without blinking his eyes and with the remote control clutched tight at his hand while his parents and some others looked fidgety. It was the news hour in the evening and they all wanted to watch the news but were helpless in front of the seven-year-old boy’s insistence. After greeting formalities his furious father shouted, "Now, you go to your reading room while we talk."

The kid left the room. The news was over, and my brother-in-law spoke out, "having cable joined to the tubes creates trouble especially when it is time to news."

"Had you not arrived in time, we would not have been able to watch the news. He obeys only when relatives or guests visit the house," Sandesh’s mother said hinting at me and squeaked past the guestroom.

Back home: two under tens of my uncle pose the same problem. They go so crazy for channels that transmit cartoons that we have to either listen to the radio or FMs or go outdoors for news. And this is not the problem of a single house or two. There is no doubt when a cable serves a number of channels there come into port a variety of viewers. But while speaking of today’s’ children I recall those days of my childhood when we were much shy and too nine. There were no TV cultures for children in those days. We were occasionally — upon becoming successful in the exams or during long holidays — taken to the theaters. Our means of entertainment would be sports — both in and outdoor.

And when it comes to good manners the children of these days seem to be lacking a lot. We see these modern day children not paying attention or giving any response when a stranger comes in or tries to talk to them.

It was a few months back when a relative visited us from the village that Swapnika, my cousin, did not respond him while he asked her name. Upon inquired by my aunt she evidently said that she no longer wanted to answer such questions. "I don’t think it is necessary for me to answer such questions which every visitor asks.

After a pause she continued, "Tell me mom, why do all the guests of ours ask the same questions to me? Do they think that I am a small kid who knows the answers of only these silly questions?," This had made her mother speechless.

It is obvious present day children are smart. They know the things which we had not known until we grew mature. They are smart and are well groomed. But there children, especially of the urban areas, are hardly seen playing games or climbing the trees or chasing each other. Therefore, some questions remain unanswered: How far they can go with TV cartoons and computer games when it comes to their physical personality that can be built only by going out and observing the real world with real things? How far they can go when it comes to facing people? How far they can go when it comes to manners?

TV and computers are a boon, no doubt. They save our time, labour and money. They help ease our lives. But nobody should forget the fact that a constant contact with TV and computers creates physical and mental problems thereby causing for a handicapped future. So, parents should never forget that there is limit to everything. It is the parents who should not only furnish facilities to their wards but also watch what they are doing and they are not doing.