A population is a summation of all the organisms of the same group or species, which live in the same geographical area,

and have the capability of interbreeding.[1][2]In ecology, the population of a certain species in a certain area is estimated using the Lincoln Index. The area that is used to define a sexual population is defined as the area where inter-breeding is potentially possible between any pair within the area. The probability of interbreeding is greater than the probability of cross-breeding with individuals from other areas. Under normal conditions, breeding is substantially more common within the area than across the border.[3]In sociology, population refers to a collection of human beings. Demography is a social science which entails the statistical study of human populations. This article refers mainly to human population. exploIndia ( i/ndi/), officially the Republic of India (Bharat Ganrajya),[14][c] is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;[d] China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands sharHuman overpopulation occurs if the number of people in a group exceeds the carrying capacity of the region occupied by the group. The term often refers to the relationship between the entire human population and its environment: the Earth,[1] or to smaller geographical areas such as countries. Overpopulation can result from an increase in births, a decline in mortality rates, an increase in immigration, or an unsustainable biome and depletion of resources. It is possible for very sparsely populated areas to be overpopulated if the area has a meager or non-existent capability to sustain life (e.g. a desert). Quality of life issues, rather than sheer carrying capacity or risk of starvation, are a basis to argue against continuing high human population growth. The human population has been growing continuously since the end of the Black Death, around the year 1400,[citation needed] although the most significant increase has been in the last 50 years, mainly due to medical advancements and increases in agricultural productivity. The rate of population growth has been declining since the 1980s. The United Nations has expressed concern on continued excessive population growth in sub-Saharan Africa.[2] As of February 8, 2014 the world's human population is estimated to be 7.142 billion by the United States Census Bureau,[3] and over 7 billion by the United Nations.[4][5][6] Most contemporary estimates for the carrying capacity of the Earth under existing conditions are between 4 billion and 16 billion. Depending on which estimate is used, human overpopulation may or may not have already occurred. Nevertheless, the rapid recent increase in human population is causing some concern. The population is expected to reach between 8 and 10.5 billion between the year 2040[7][8] and 2050.[9] In May 2011, the United Nations increased the medium variant projections to 9.3 billion for 2050 and 10.1 billion for 2100.[10] eIn the early periods the human population was checked by environmental hazards and diseases. In later period's invention of tools for hunting, agriculture revolution, industrial revolution, modern medicine form the primary factors for growth of population. Advancement of scientific technology, in 1950's resulted in better conditions, more food, and less death rate, caused increase in population.

Population Growth in different countries: Growth of human population varies in different countries. Nations are divided into 2 categories. Developed countries: These are industrialised or advanced countries and included U.S. A, Canada, Japan and European countries. These countries have low population rate, more per capita income and better life facilities. The population growth is almost nil since 1950 but per capita income has increased almost- doubled or tripled. Under developed countries: There are under developed less advanced countries. They include India, African countries, Egypt, Latin America etc. They have high rate of population growth, and worst life facilities. Developed countries constitute about 1/3 of the world population but still control the rest of the world. Problems of developing countries are linked with their high rate of population growth. All their national income is spent on food and shelter and less funds are available for other developmental activities. Developing countries, instead of looking for aid, must check their population growth, then only they will have funds for farm machinery, industry, education, medical care and other facilities. a 1. Early marriages are one of the major cause for the high birth rate. According to the law it is not permissible for girls to get married before the age of eighteen years and boys before twentyone years. But in many rural and backward areas people are married early and even child marriages are prevalent. This generally leads to a larger number of children being born. Increase in social awareness is the only way to solve this problem. 2. Poverty and illiteracy are two other factors. Children are seen as additional working hands in poorer families. It is felt that they can contribute to the familys income and also support their parents in their old age. In reality, in a larger family it is harder to provide proper food, nutrition, and education for all the children. Thus, more children are condemned to being illiterate. Illiteracy, especially amongst women again leads to a larger number of children. 3. The preference of a male child is still very strong in our country because of religious beliefs and social conditioning. Even educated people keep on having children, as they want a male child. As we have seen earlier, our country has made remarkable progress in the field of agriculture and industry. However, the unmanageable growth in population has prevented the benefits of this development from reaching all the people. This leads to scarcity of food, shelter, and employment among the people of our country. Thus, the biggest challenge before our country today is to check the population growth.

e Asia Society survey on womens status in health, education, economic activity and political leadership urges improvements to ensure the region benefits fully from its underused pool of human talent. The 2 billion women in Asia are still paid less than men for similar work and are extremely underrepresented in top leadership positions, according to a report that estimates limited female employment ultimately cost the region $89 billion a year in lost produ Infant mortality is the death of a child less than one year of age. Childhood mortality is the death of a child before the child's fifth birthday. National statistics tend to group these two mortality rates together. Globally, ten million infants and children die each year before their fifth birthday; 99% of these deaths occur in developing nations. Infant mortality takes away societys potential physical, social, and human capital. Generally the most common cause worldwide has been dehydration from diarrhea, a preventable disease; however, a variety of programs combating this problem have decreased the rate of children dying from dehydration. Many factors contribute to infant mortality such as the mothers level of education, environmental conditions, and political and medical infrastructure. Improving sanitation, access to clean drinking water, immunization against infectious diseases, and other public health measures could help reduce high rates of infant mortality.
ctivity.

Low female literacy levels and the lack of widespread availability of birth-control methods is hampering the use of contraception in India. Awareness of contraception is near-universal among married women in India.[6] However, the vast majority of married Indians (76% in a 2009 study) reported significant problems in accessing a choice of contraceptive methods.[3] In 2009, 48.3% of married women were estimated to use a contraceptive method, i.e. more than half of all married women did not.[3] About three-fourths of these were using female sterilization, which is by far the most prevalent birth-control method in India.[3] Condoms, at a mere 3% were the next most prevalent method.[3] Meghalaya, at 20%, had the lowest usage of contraception among all Indian states. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were the other two states that reported usage below 30%.[3] Comparative studies have indicated that increased female literacy is correlated strongly with a decline in fertility.[7] Studies have indicated that female literacy levels are an independent strong predictor of the use of contraception, even when women do not otherwise have economic independence.[8] Female literacy levels in India may be the primary factor that help in population stabilization, but they are improving relatively slowly: a 1990 study estimated that it would take until 2060 for India to achieve universal literacy at the current rate of progress.[7]

Family planning programs

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is the government unit responsible for formulating and executing family planning related government plans in India. An inverted Red Triangle is the symbol for family planning health and contraception services in India.

Historical background
Raghunath Dhondo Karve published a Marathi magazine Samaj Swasthya ( )starting from July 1927 until 1953. In it, he continually discussed issues of society's well being through population control through use of contraceptives so as prevent unwanted pregnancies and induced abortions. He proposed that the Indian Government should take up a population control program, but was met with opposition. In the early 1970s, Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, had implemented a forced sterilization programme, but failed. Officially, men with two children or more had to submit to sterilization, but many unmarried young men, political opponents and ignorant, poor men were also believed to have been sterilized. This program is still remembered and criticized in India, and is blamed for creating a public aversion to family planning, which hampered Government programmes for decades.[9] Contraceptive usage has been rising gradually in India. In 1970, 13% of married women used modern contraceptive methods, which rose to 35% by 1997 and 48% by 2009.[2] The national family planning program was launched in 1951, and was the world's first governmental population stabilization program. By 1996, the program had been estimated to have averted 168 million births.[10]

Fertility rate
India suffers from the problem of overpopulation.[11][12][13] Although the fertility rate (average number of children born per woman during her lifetime) in India has been declining, it has not reached replacement rate yet. The replacement rate is defined as the total fertility rate at which newborn girls would have an average of exactly one daughter over their lifetimes. In more familiar terms, women have just enough babies to replace themselves. Factoring in infant mortality, the replacement rate is approximately 2.1 in most industrialized nations and about 2.5 in developing nations (due to higher mortality). Discounting immigration and population momentum effects, a nation that crosses below the replacement rate is on the path to population stabilization and, eventually, population reduction.

Historical fertility trend

The fertility rate in India has been in long-term decline, and had more than halved in the 19602009 period. From 5.7 in 1966, it declined to 3.3 by 1997 and 2.7 in 2009.[4][5]

State and country comparisons

Seven Indian states have dipped below the 2.1 replacement rate level and are no longer contributing to Indian population growth - Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab and Sikkim.[14] Four Indian states have fertility rates above 3.5 - Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland.[14] Of these, Bihar has a fertility rate of 4.0, the highest of any Indian state. For detailed state figures and rankings, see Indian states ranking by fertility rate. In 2009, India had a lower estimated fertility rate than Pakistan and Bangladesh, but a higher fertility rate than China, Iran, Burma and Sri Lanka.[15]
Mortality rate is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of deaths per 1000 individuals per year; thus, a mortality rate of 9.5 (out of 1000) in a population of 1,000 would mean 9.5 deaths per year in that entire population, or 0.95% out of the total. It is distinct from morbidity rate, which refers to the number of individuals in poor health during a given time period (the prevalence rate) or the number of newly appearing cases of the disease per unit of time (incidence rate). The term "mortality" is also sometimes inappropriately used to refer to the number of deaths among a set of diagnosed hospital cases for a disease or injury, rather than for the general population of a country or ethnic group. This disease mortality statistic is more precisely referred to as "case fatality

rate" (CFR).