No Subject

[Sanjeev Sabhlok <sanjeev@sabhlokcity.com>]

--------------------------------------------------------------------- Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it! --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dr. Sanjeev Sabhlok <sanjeev@sabhlokcity.com>
To: debate@indiapolicy.org
Subject:  one billionth child of India

I'm sure everyone has read this. Also found in my mailbox.

> Sender: "Jagdeep Perhar"  
>
> This is based on the report  that India has already given birth to 1 billionth child and based on present projections, India looks set to overtake China by 2045. 
>
> A report by the Worldwatch Institute, based in Washington DC, says  the birth of the billionth 
> Indian "is not a cause for celebration". 
>
> It says half of India's adults are illiterate, 
> more than half of its children are undernourished, and 
> a third of its people live below the poverty line. 
>
> Barely keeping pace 
>
> In the last 50 years India has tripled its grain harvest, with new high-yielding crops and a tripling of the irrigated area. 
>
> Even so, the report says, food production has barely kept up with population. 
>
> Now the rise in grainland productivity is slowing, as it is in many other countries. And the  amount of land available to each Indian is shrinking. 
>
> In 1960 there was an average of 0.21 hectares of grainland for every citizen. 
> That has fallen to 0.1 ha today, and by 2050 is likely to have fallen  further, to 0.07 ha. 
>
> Food production is also threatened by falling water tables. 
>
> The International Water Management Institute estimates that India is using its underground water reserves twice as fast as they are being replaced. 
>
> Unable to respond 
>
> That is serious in a country where irrigated land produces 55% of the grain harvest, and where 
> most irrigation water comes from underground. 
>
> The Worldwatch Institute says the Indian Government, "overwhelmed  by sheer numbers, is suffering from democratic fatigue", and is unable  to respond properly to new crises. 
>
> And it believes that means the worsening environmental problems are likely to have a grim outcome. 
>
> "If this decrease in water supplies causes food production to drop, death rates are likely to increase." 
>
> In some ways, the report says, India is now paying the price for developing nuclear weapons.  "As a result, it now has a nuclear arsenal capable of protecting the largest concentration of impoverished citizens on Earth." 
>
> Different priorities 
>
> Comparing India's use of 2.5% of its GNP for military expenditure with the 0.7% it spends on health, the report's verdict is stark. 
>
> "Unless India can quickly reorder priorities, it risks falling into a demographic dark hole, one where population will begin to slow because death rates are rising. 
> "It may be time for India to redefine security. The principal threat now may not be military aggression from without, but population growth  from within." 

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