Population Of Bengal "A Boon or a Curse"?
The population of Bengal is a Boon or a Curse?
Population Growth
The population growth of a country is relates the economic development of the country. It is similar in our West Bengal too. The growth of population in West Bengal has got both some advantages and disadvantages.Advantages
1. Labour Supply -
With a increasing population and large number of people in the state there is a high source of labour supply in our state. With this growing rate of population the labour force of our state is continuously increasing day-by-day. These labour force is the basic source of production of goods and services. The increasing labour supply allows the producers to use labour intensive techniques for the production of goods.2. Utilisation Of resources -
With a large number of population it is possible for the state to utilise the natural resources effectively without any loss of the natural resources. A large number of labour also helps in the full utilisation of the resources.3. Better Market
With a large number of population a large market is created as the demand for the goods and services increase. This allows foreign companies to come to our state. There is a large market in West Bengal for the consumer goods like food, cloths, medicines etc. This market increases with growing population and the production also increases therefore hence creating a larger employment for the people.4. Higher investment
With a higher demand and market for the goods and services in the market it allows the producers to invest more for the production of goods and commodities. These increases the total capital of the country.5. Higher employment rate -
A higher investment means a higher amount of Business activities in the state. This business activity involves higher number of employees for the business. Thus Employment rate of the state also increases.Disadvantages
1. Adverse effect on per capita income -
With a increasing population the per capita income of a person decreases and the rate of dependency also increases. A greater population means a greater number of people will share all the available income and resources of the state.2. Land pressure -
A increase in the growth of population puts a pressure on the available land resources. As with a increase in population of the state people need more land to set up houses and our state has a limited land resource. So it puts a high pressure on the available land resource.3. Food Supply -
An increasing population puts a pressure on the food supply of the state. The food supply is limited and with a increasing population the demand for the food grains increases. This puts a pressure on the food supply. It also decreases the per capita availability of food.4. Unemployment -
With the increase in the population of the state both the rural and the rural unemployment rises. This is due to the fact that more and more number of people in the rural areas migrate to the urban areas in the search of jobs. Thus it causes loss of jobs in the urban areas as the growth of industries is not in the rate of growth of the population that it can provide jobs to all the growing and new population of our state.5. Dependency Burden -
The increase in the population increases the dependency burden on the earning member of the family. Thus he is not allowed to enjoy all the services and facilities which he is supposed to have and hence the standard of living decreases.6. Low Rate of savings -
With higher population and Unemployment or Under-employment problem it is not possible for the people to save money. Thus there is a low rate of savings in the economy and hence capital formed from this savings will also be low.7. Infrastructure -
There is a burden on the infrasructural facilities of the state as it is not ready to pay services to all the growing amount of population with such a high rate of rise in population of the state.8. Standard of living -
With the decrease in per capita incomeof the people the standard of living also falls down and people start compromising with things.9. Efficiency of labour -
With a higher amount of labour force the efficiency of the labour force decreases. One more reason is that the labours are abolished when there are lots of people waiting for work and they are paid a very low amount of money. Thus there efficiency for the given work also decreases. Environmental effect :
Population has its major effect on the environment of the state. The pollution level of the state is increasing day by day due to high amount of pollution. Specially in the urban areas. Our city Kolkata have a large amount of air pollution and water pollution due to the rapid population growth . There are more amount of vehicles emitting harmful gases. There are more industries who are disposing of their waste in the river Ganga thus causing water pollution too.
