Syllabus: Urbanization; Development and Displacement; Environmental Degradation; Sustainable Development; Population Explosion; Agrarian Distress; Migration.
Number of Questions- Mains: 2, Prelims: 10
Mains Questions of the day-
1. India needs the policy for population stabilization. Discuss.
Introduction:
Mention some current statics related to India’s demography.
Body:
Discuss why India needs a policy for population stabilization.
Conclusion:
- The population stabilization difference between the southern and northern states is becoming disproportionately skewed. It will change uniform distribution of economic growth across the regions and destroy the gains from a young populace.
- Thus, the long-term policy requires a stable population consistent with the requirements of sustainable economic growth, social development, and environmental protection.
Content:
- The National Population Policy 2000 affirmed a commitment to achieve replacement levels of fertility (total fertility rate of 2.1) by 2010.
- Ten states have achieved this goal, although with much delayed.
- Kerala and Tamil Nadu had accomplished it decades earlier.
- This fertility decline over half of India has cut different sections of society such as the privileged and the poor, those educated or not, and the high and low caste.
- The National Family Health Survey 4 has shown, TFR has reduced even among illiterate women from all religions in the southern states even in Kerala and Telangana which have a high proportion of Muslims.
- The Southern states achieved population stabilisation so early, while Uttar Pradesh and Bihar was not.
- Fertility reduction measures in five southern states succeeded, irrespective of literacy and education levels
- It changes the conventional thought of literacy, education and development are prerequisites for populations to stabilise.
- The fertility decline was achieved in southern states because of governments proactively urged families to have only two children, followed by female sterilisation immediately thereafter.
- There is disproportion progressive in South and the Central- North.
- UP and Bihar are 23% of India’s population and are projected to grow by over 12% and 20% in the next 15 years respectively.
- The action is to prevent unwanted pregnancies particularly in these two states is urgently required.
- Women in rural UP are still giving birth to four or more children.
- In some districts, the contraceptive prevalence rate is less than 10%.
- In many districts nobody using modern family planning methods.
- UP’s over-reliance on traditional methods of contraception needs to be replaced with reliable and easy alternatives.
- Bihar has the highest fertility rate in the country and also the highest out-migration.
- Almost half the women in some districts have a migrant husband and women’s unwillingness to use contraception in the absence of the husband, resulting in unprotected sex.
- No other country in the world uses female sterilisation as excessively as India instead male vasectomy (male sterilisation).
- Even Kerala with all its progress still relies on female sterilisation (above 88%) as the predominant modern method of contraception.
- Three things are needed:
- Incentivise later marriages and child births
- Make contraception easy for women and
- Promote women’s labour force participation.
- The population momentum managed properly, it will remain India’s biggest asset until 2055.
- By 2040, India will be the king of human capital.
2. Analyse the trend of Climate-Induced Migration and Modern Slavery.
Introduction:
Define Modern slavery
Body:
Mention some statics how extreme weather events in India made women and children more vulnerable to modern slavery
Conclusion:
- Climate and development policy-makers urgently need to recognise that millions of people displaced by climate change are being, and will be, exposed to slavery in the coming decades.
- Policymakers should therefore develop targeted actions, at national and international levels, to address the issue.
- The global and regional discourse on development and climate policy must consider trafficking and slavery risks due to climate shocks.
- Several ongoing initiatives including the Warsaw International Mechanism Task Force on Displacement, the Sendai Framework, etc should be coordinated to increase understanding, and response, growing risks of climate-induced migration or displacement and exposure to modern slavery.
Content:
- Modern slavery including debt bondage, bonded labour, early or forced marriage and human trafficking converge with climate change, particularly climate shocks and climate-related forced displacement and migration.
- Climate change is devastating the planet, leading to intensifying global inequality as well as disputes over land, water and scarce resources.
- People are being driven to migrate within and across borders in search of resources and income.
- As many as 55 million people were internally displaced within their countries due to extreme weather events in 2020.
- The World Bank estimates that, by 2050, the impact of the climate crisis, such as poor crop yields, a lack of water and rising sea levels, will force more than 216 million people across six regions, including sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia and Latin America, from their homes.
- Climate change-induced extreme weather events put women, children and minorities at risk of modern slavery and human trafficking.
- The phenomenon is on the rise in India.
- In Sundarbans, the delta region is characterised by intense, recurrent and sudden onset disasters, as well as slow onset ecological degradation making large areas uninhabitable.
- Rising sea levels, erratic rainfall, increased frequency of cyclones, tidal surges and floods, mean that millions of people across the Sundarbans are unable to work for most of the year.
- In 2020, during Cyclone Amphan, embankment was breached and seawater entered the flood plains resulting in widespread displacement from homes and loss of livelihoods for more than two million people.
- Such events made locals vulnerable to traffickers and drove them into forced labour.
- Severe cyclone and flooding in Sundarbans delta had also reduced the land for agriculture, which is the major source of livelihood.
- While restrictions were imposed by bordering countries, smugglers and traffickers operating in the affected region targeted widows and men desperate to cross the border to India to find employment.
- Women were trafficked and often forced into hard labour and prostitution, with some working in daily labour along the border.
- People displaced and migrating from rural to urban areas with no resources, skills or social networks at their destination, are targeted by agents and traffickers in Dhaka or Kolkata.
- At the same time, climate change has made children more vulnerable.
- By established the close relationship between lack of resources, alternative livelihoods, safety nets and the protection against loss and damage as well as debt and exploitation. Scale of displacement has been increased.
- As many as 55 million people were internally displaced within their countries due to extreme weather events in 2020.
- This is the highest in the last one decade.
- This would be in addition to the existing 40.3 million people living under slavery in the world.
- NICEF has repeatedly warned that climate change increases the risk of girls being pushed into unsafe migration and displacement, which can expose them to the risk of modern slavery.
Prelims Questions of the day:
1.Which of the following is true regarding UN report on climate change repercussions for India?
- More than 40% of India’s population will face water scarcity by 2050.
- Coastal areas, including big cities like Mumbai, will be affected by rising sea levels by 2050.
- Both A and B
- None
Answer: C
Explanation:
According to UN report, more than 40% of India’s population will face water scarcity by 2050, and at the same time the country’s coastal areas, including big cities like Mumbai, will be affected by rising sea levels.
2.Which of the following state has highest population density in India?
- Bihar
- Uttar Pradesh
- Maharshatra
- West Bengal
Answer: A
Explanation:
- In India,the state with highest density of Population is Bihar.
- Bihar with 1,106 population persons per sq.km is most thickly populated state followed by West Bengal (1,028) and Kerala (860).
3.Which of the following statement is true regarding United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)?
- The UNHCR was established in 1948 in the wake of the mass displacements caused due to the Second World War in Europe.
- The UNHCR has also won the Nobel Prize for Peace once in 1981.
- India has offices in Bangalore and Chennai.
- Its parent organisation is the United Nations General Assembly(UNGA).
Answer: D
Explanation:
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
- UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is an international organisation working to saving lives, safeguarding the rights and providing a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people.
- The organisation’s target audience includes refugees, people who are forcibly displaced from their homes, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and stateless people.
- The UNHCR was established in 1950 in the wake of the mass displacements caused due to the Second World War in Europe.
- Since then, it has provided relief to thousands of refugees and displaced persons in many parts of the world.
- The UNHCR has also won the Nobel Prize for Peace twice (1954 and 1981).
- The chief legal document that governs the work of the UNHCR is the 1951 Refugee Convention.
- The organisation works in 135 countries and in India, has offices in New Delhi and Chennai. It first established its presence in India in 1981.
- The UNHCR is headed by the High Commissioner for Refugees.
- Its parent organisation is the United Nations General Assembly(UNGA).
- The UNHCR gives the Nansen Refugee Award annually to people who work in the field of refugee rights and protection.
4.Which of the following is not correct regarding changes in the Himalayas due climate change?
- The Hindu Kush Himalayas experienced a temperature rise of about 1.3°C during 1951–2014.
- Hindu Kush Himalayas have a declining trend in snowfall in recent decades.
- Both A and B
- Karakoram Himalayas have lower winter snowfall that has shielded the region from glacier shrinkage.
Answer: D
Explanation:
Changes in the Himalayas due to climate change:
- The Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) experienced a temperature rise of about 1.3°C during 1951–2014. Several areas of HKH have experienced a declining trend in snowfall and also retreat of glaciers in recent decades.
- In contrast, the high-elevation Karakoram Himalayas have experienced higher winter snowfall that has shielded the region from glacier shrinkage.
- By the end of the twenty-first century, the annual mean surface temperature over HKH is projected to increase by about 5.2°C. An increase in annual precipitation, but decrease in snowfall over the HKH region by the end of the twenty-first century, with large spread across models.
5. During which of the following decade did the population record a negative growth rate?
- 1921-31
- 1911-21
- 1941-51
- 1931-41
Answer: B
Explanation:
- During 1911-21 the population record a negative growth rate.
- As per census 2011, Nagaland is the only Indian state which has negative growth rate of -0.58% in census 2011 while Indian population grown at the rate of 17.69% from 2001 to 2011.
6.Which of the following organisation, has published the Global Trend report on refugee?
- UNHCR
- Food and Agriculture Organisation
- World Bank
- IMF
Answer: A
Explanation:
- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has released annual Global Trends report before the World Refugee Day (20th June).
- Global Trends is published every year to count and track the numbers of refugees, internally displaced people, people who have returned to their countries or areas of origin, asylum-seekers, stateless people and other populations of concern to UNHCR.
7. which of the following represents the Growth rate of population?
- Difference between the growth of male and female
- Difference between the population of urban and rural areas
- Number of births per thousand persons
- Difference between birth rate and death rate
Answer: D
Explanation :
- The Growth rate of population means difference between birth rate and death rate.
- Population can be said to be growing when number of individuals increase in it.
- It can be best calculated by calculating difference between birth rate and death rate.
8.Which of the following organization has published the Universal Health Coverage index?
- World bank
- IMF
- World Economic Forum
- World Health Organisation
Answer: A
Explanation:
- Universal health coverage (UHC) is about ensuring that people have access to the health care they need without suffering financial hardship.
- It is key to achieving the World Bank’s twin goals of ending extreme poverty and increasing equity and shared prosperity, and as such it is the driving force behind all of the World Bank health and nutrition investments.
9.Appoxiamtely how many people migrated globally as of 2020?
- 100 million
- 281 million
- 228 millon
- 380 million
Answer: B
Explanation:
Human migration:
- A broad range of factors continue to determine the movement of people.
- They are either voluntary or forced movements as a result of the increased magnitude and frequency of disasters, economic challenges and extreme poverty or conflict.
- Approximately 281 million people were international migrants in 2020, representing 3.6 per cent of the global population.
- In fact, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes for the first time the contribution of migration to sustainable development.
- 11 out of the 17 SDGs contain targets and indicators relevant to migration or mobility.
- Top of Form
10.As per the census 2011, what is the density in India?
- 325
- 352
- 372
- 382
Answer: D
Explanation:
The population density of India has risen to 382 person’s square km according to 2011 census. In 2001 it was 325.