Population and Associated Issues

What the official syllabus says

UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination, Paper II: General Studies I.

Role of women and women’s organization, population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies.

This page covers population and its associated issues, their problems and remedies.

Topics in detail

Concepts

• Population size, density, growth, distribution
• Fertility, mortality and migration; total fertility rate, infant and maternal mortality
• The demographic transition model; age–sex structure and population pyramids
• Sex ratio and child sex ratio; dependency ratio
• Theories: Malthus, optimum population

India’s population

• The Census of India: its history and what it collects; the National Family Health Surveys and the Sample Registration System
• Phases of population growth in the twentieth century
• Regional differences in growth, fertility and the sex ratio between states
• Rural and urban population; literacy

Associated issues

• The demographic dividend: conditions to realise it (education, skills, health, jobs)
• Population ageing and the needs of the elderly
• Migration: internal migration, distress migration, seasonal migrants, the diaspora
• Population, resources and the environment
• Gender imbalance and its social consequences
• Population and federal questions (delimitation, devolution of taxes)
• The north–south demographic divide: different stages of the demographic transition across states
• Health and nutrition of the population; malnutrition and stunting

Remedies and policy

• The family planning programme (1952) and its evolution from targets to a rights-based approach
• The National Population Policy, 2000
• Women’s education and empowerment as a driver of lower fertility
• Health system measures: maternal and child health, reproductive health services
• Policies for the elderly and for migrants
• Debates: incentives versus coercion in family planning (the sterilisation drive of the Emergency years and its backlash), two-child norms for local elections in some states
• Making the most of the dividend: skills, female employment, health and urban jobs

Overlaps

• Health and human resources are also in General Studies II; employment and inclusive growth in General Studies III.