Effects of Population Growth on the Economic Development of Developing Countries

Effects of Population Growth on the Economic Development of Developing Countries 

The Living Legend

Ahmad Javed Kamran Amiri

Dated: Sunday 17^th November 2019

Most of us are aware of common dangers to humanity like earthquakes, floods and epidemics. We are, however, quite unaware of the most dangerous enemy of human race over population.

Population is growing more rapidly now than it did ever before. There are many reasons for this rapid growth. Scientist have controlled diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and small pox. These are no longer fatal even if some people catch them. Not long ago quite a number of babies died in their infancy, now the infant death-rate has been reduced to almost nil, while the birth-rate has increased. There are many more people now living in the world than ever before.  This over-population is the most dangerous problem of today. It hinders development of both the individual and the nation.

It is mentionable to say that a country becomes over-populated when its natural and scare resources are not sufficient to meet the needs of its people. Under these conditions every individual has to make greater efforts to get the necessities of life that they want to have and are necessary for him/her. Society cannot provide jobs for all the individuals, and the result is unemployment. In an over-crowded home or over-populated country the environment becomes unhealthy. There is less of fresh air and cleanliness, more of disease and dirt, less of food, shelter and other needs of life, more of unskilled, uneducated and unemployment people.

U.N. experts have warned that the population of the world may double and touch the frightening figure of 14,000 million (14 billion) or more than this amount by the end of the century.

Statistics have been collected to show the rapid growth of population all over the world. For example, 3.9 babies are born in every second while 1.7 people die. There is, thus, an increase of 2.2 persons per second, 132 persons per minute, 190,080 persons per day and over 1.3 million persons per weak! 50 years ago, the world population was increasing more than 25 million annually.

A developing country like Afghanistan faces many problems, but the most dangerous there is over-population. Afghanistan’s population was about 24 million people ten years ago and now in 2019 it has been increasing by 1 million each year and now (2019) our country population is more than 34 million people. In order to feed this large population however Allah gives them feed, we have to build new dams to have better irrigation system. We have to use fertilizers and modern agricultural implements to increase food production. All these efforts have, however, become ineffective as all the extra food is consumed by the fast growing population. The same is true of all the other developing projects such as housing, medical aid, education and most importantly employment for all the members of our society.

In case of education situation. The number of school-going children in Afghanistan rose to millions in 2019. One can imagine how many more schools must be set up for these new children, in addition to the million who went without education many years ago. The same applies to facilities urgently needed in all other fields.

One of the greatest things that the world has now realized that the very survival of the human race depends upon a good firm plan for population control all over the world. A lot of money is being spent on population control all over the world.

One thing that I want add is that all the people must realize that it is not just our duty but our moral duty, Islamic and humanity to provide suitable environment to the child not just to our child and children but to all children of our society and country. And it (the child and children) should have a chance to live a decent life with good education, good upbringing and a good sense of being loved. And it is not fair to throw it (the child or children) into the sea of unwanted, uneducated, miserable and hungry humanity. Must say that this is what happens in an over populated country. That is why it is said that a child is very beautiful and has the right of everything especially education.