Evening star., 1951-07-14
Not Just an Indian Dilemma

Ihe problem OF population gfoWtn ana IN
adequate food supply-a problem that must
greatly concern many of the worlds countries in
the years ahead-has now been summed up for
India by special commission of experts headed
by Prime Minister Nehru. The substance of the
commissions report based on a careful study
that began in March, 1850, is simply this: That
concrete measures must be taken If the fast
multiplying Indian people are not to move into
future of unaduterated misery.
Thus, according to the Nehru groups esti-
mates, India-whose tillable land is limited and
whose present food output is insufficient for the
people now living there's increasing in popula
ton at a rate of 5,0000 900 year, or 50000000
every decade. Translated into overall figures,
what this means is that the number of Indian
men, women and children-which stood at about
300000,000 in 1941-promises to be in the neigh
borhood of $50. 100000 five years FROM now, And
ten years after that. if the current trend con-
tinueS tit can accelerate as we'll as slow down,
the total will be around 430000,000. Meanwhile,
however the nations agricultural and industrial
productivity is at best standing STILL not growing.
Accordingly to cope with the catastrophe
potentialities implicit in this situation the Nehru
commission has recommended 1ve-year pro-
gram of action to give India economic and social
stability Broadly summarized, the program
which will be subject to debate before any part
of it is adopted and put into operation-is made
up of two major proposals The first OF. these
calls for the expenditure, between now and 1856,
of S37 billion in rupees to modernize and expand
the country's agricultural and industrial output
in order to head off the threat of chronic famine
and bring about steady rise in living standards.
And the second calls for the active promotion
of birth control through educational and other
means-an undertaking that is not prohibited by
H.
numbers of Indians frown on the idea.
Wholly apart from the controversial question
of birth control there can be no doubt that there
is an imperative need in India for economic de-
velopment of the sort advocated by the Nehru
commission. The same holds true for many
other countries, which is one of the big reasons
why projects like the Point Four Program and
the Colombo Plan ought to be pushed fast as
feasible. For the problem Of population growth
is a matter of worldwide concern. century
ago human beings numbered only about 1000
100000 but today there are we'll over 1000 900
of them, and they are multiplying at rate of
at least 200 00C, 900 each decade In terms of
mouths to feed, this is the same as If new
Russia and all its inhabitants were being added
to our planet every ten years.
In these circumstances, assuming that the
present rate of increase continues worth re-
as slow DOWN, the population of the world 100
years hence will be 1000 600. At this very
moment however, there is such deficiency in
agricultural output that great segnents of hu-
manity are subject to periodic famines. True
enough, some of the best students of the subject
hold that the earth is bountiful enough to sup
port vast increases in the number of human
beings even if atomic science does not lead
as it promises to do-to the secret of synthetic
food production But this relatively optimistic
view IS based on the assumption that steps will
be taken now to promote the proper exploitation
of underdeveloped areas
Here is a problem whose significance can
scarcely be exaggerated. The more the years
pass by. the more acute it will grow unless there
is enlightened international action on it. To
ignore it, to do nothing about it, to let nature
take its course, would be to move willy-nilly
toward a nightmare period in the history of
mankind Productivity, especially food produc-
tivity, simply cannot be allowed to stand still
while population multiplies as fast as it is multi
plying now. If the world does not act accord
ingly, the future will be bleak thing indeed.