'Development is the Best Contraceptive'
If population is a bomb, Nagaland needs to be very afraid. Here’s why. Every year, a new Australia comes to India. The meaning is that the population of India grows so fast that the size of the total population of Australia is being added into India every year. By 2045, India will overtake China as the most populous country in the world. Now, Nagaland has the one of the highest fertility rates in India (only next to Bihar, UP, and Meghalaya) and this is a cause of serious concern. This fertility rate of 3.7 against the national rate of 2.7 is not from the last Census, but from a more reliable source, the latest round of the National Family Health Survey III (NFHS III), 2005-06. Worse is that the State’s rate has not declined since the previous round NFHS II (1998-99) while the national figure has. Overpopulation is often linked with depletion of resources (food, ground water, etc), environmental degradation, unemployment, social unrest (e.g. youth bulge theory), illegal migration, co...