Population control measures
Topic: World Population: Distribution, Density, Growth and Migration · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "The World Population: Distribution, Density and Growth"
Meaning
Population control measures are steps a government takes to slow population growth. NCERT lists propaganda and awareness campaigns, free contraceptives and tax disincentives for large families. Experience shows that force backfires. Since the Cairo conference of 1994, policy has moved towards voluntary choice and reproductive rights.
Example
During the Emergency (1975-77), forced sterilisations in India caused public anger and set back the family planning programme. China's one-child policy, from 1980, was an extreme state measure that also skewed the sex ratio.
Don't confuse with
- Family planning: This is one voluntary tool among population control measures, based on informed choice and contraception.
- Pronatalist policy: This aims at the opposite goal, which is raising birth rates.
Related concepts
- Family planning
- International Conference on Population and Development
- One-child policy
- Pronatalist policy