Population Policies in Developed and Developing Countries – UGC NET – Notes

Introduction

According to Oxford Dictionary, Policy is a plan of action agreed or chosen by a government, a company, etc. For example, a company policy is not allowed to smoke meetings, or a way of behaving that you think is best in a particular situation. Policy is a law, regulation, procedure, administrative action, incentive, or voluntary practice of governments and other institutions, or We can say that a policy is a set of guidelines that provides direction to implement the programme associated with it. Policy decisions are frequently reflected in resource allocations. Health can be influenced by policies in many different sectors. For example, population policy can control population growth and health and development issues; Mid-day meal (MDM) policies in schools can improve nutritional content of school meals.

A population policy is a set of measures taken by a State to modify the way its population is changing, either by promoting large families or immigration to increase its size, or by encouraging limitation of births to decrease it. A population policy may also aim to modify the distribution of the population over the country by encouraging migration or by displacing populations (INED, 2023). There are various scientific study of population conducting by organizations such as Population Investigations Committee; Milbank Memorial Trust/Foundation; Rockefeller Foundation; Population Council; Other foundations; Professional societies (IUSSP, other associations) conferences, research, journals; and State efforts -Commissions on Population in various countries. Key World Population Conferences have influenced population policies across the globe such as Geneva (1927), Rome (1954), Belgrade (1965) which have primarily to discuss research, scientific meetings rather than governmental conferences. Thus, we can read in this unit that population policies are focusing on – pro-natalist and anti-natalist population policies of all the countries.

Concept of Population Policy

We know that policy is a document on any issue and challenge for development. Population and development are not mutually exclusive in nature. Development is the consequence of population growth and population policy is the plan of action for using available resources according to the trends and patterns of population growth. Government of any country tries to adopt effective population policy to control and manage overpopulation, optimum population and underpopulation. Available resources are the determinant of population policy, which indicates that population is more than their available resources. For example, if car is available in a household which has capacity of four seats and people in the household are three, four and five, in this situation, we can say household has under-population, optimum population and overpopulation respectively. Schultz (2010) stated that population policies are primarily a response to the anticipated consequences of fertility and mortality, and next to internal and international migration that also modify the size, age composition, and regional distribution of the population. In the context of population policy, we should keep in mind following points (Bhaswati Das).

1. Population is recognized as a factor influencing economy, society, environment and overall, the level of living.
2. It is necessary to understand the relationship between population and resources, and economic, social, environmental, political factors.
3. How do the size, structure, spatial distribution influence socio-economic conditions?
4. In turn how do resources, socioeconomic and political conditions affect population processes of fertility, mortality, migration and thereby population size, structure, and spatial distribution?

The United Nations International Conference on population convened in Bucharest upheld the slogan that “family planning is the solution”. Ten years later, the Mexico Population Conference raised the slogan that “development isthe solution, “development is the best contraceptive pill”. The last conference, was Cairo Conference, 20 years ago, recognized the importance of family planning, and the importance of development, but it upheld the truth that “women are the solution”.

So, women are part of the solution. But they cannot be a part of the solution without having access to one universal prescription.