Noting that there is rising population anxiety, UNFPA’s State of the World Population 2023 calls for radical rethinking to build demographic resilience
Are we too many? How can we, eight billion people, cope with pandemics, imminent climate challenges, weakened economies, conflicts and food and energy shortages? Even though more pregnant women and newborns survive the perilous first few months of life, these worries still plague us. People live longer, healthier lives and kids are more likely to reach adulthood and beyond, notes the State of the World Population 2023 (SWOP 2023) report titled ‘8 Billion Lives, Infinite Possibilities: the case for rights and choices’ unveiled by UNFPA today
UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem says, “Women’s bodies should not be held captive to population targets.” She adds, “To build thriving and inclusive societies, regardless of population size, we must radically rethink how we talk about and plan for population change.”
Research commissioned by UNFPA highlights that there is a widespread fear of population growth and governments are progressively implementing measures to increase, decrease, or maintain fertility rates. “The future can seem bleak; globally, more than 6 in 7 people say they feel insecure.”
The results of the Indian part of the survey imply that widespread public anxiety over the population has crept in. However, population figures shouldn't be alarming or cause for concern. If individual rights and preferences are upheld, they should be viewed as a sign of development, progress, and aspirations instead.
The survey results revealed that respondents in India held the opinion that the population in their country is too large and fertility rates too high. There are no significant difference between the views of men and women in India on national fertility rates.
"India had done many things right. The government has made contraceptive options available to people, while programmes such as Mission Parivar Vikas are reaching out to districts which are underserved. However, even as India becomes the most populous country in the world, the programmatic discourse should focus on ensuring that comprehensive and equitable services are available to people regardless of where they live or which strata of society they belong to. At the same time, we need to make sure that girls and women are not pushed into early marriages and pregnancies, which limit their aspirations," says Poonam Muttreja, Population Foundation of India’s Executive Director.
Specifically in the Indian context, 63 per cent of people in India are concerned about the economy, followed by 46 per cent who are concerned about the environment, 30 per cent are concerned about sexual and reproductive health laws and human rights, and 20 per cent are concerned about culture, ethnicity and racism.
Setting the figures in the larger context, Andrea Wojnar, Representative UNFPA India and Country Director Bhutan, says, “We at UNFPA see India’s 1.4 billion people as 1.4 billion opportunities. India’s story is a powerful one. It is a story of progress in education, public health and sanitation, economic development as well as technological advancements. As the country with the largest youth cohort—its 254 million youth (15-24 years) can be a source of innovation, new thinking and lasting solutions.” She adds, “The trajectory can leapfrog forward if women and girls in particular are equipped with equal educational and skill building opportunities, access to technology and digital innovations, and most importantly with information and power to fully exercise their reproductive rights and choices.”
These report results came out a public survey commissioned by UNFPA and conducted by YouGov, which asked a representative sample of 7,797 people across eight countries (Brazil, Egypt, France, Hungary, India, Japan, Nigeria, and the United States) for their views on population issues. For India, the total sample size was 1,007 and the survey was carried out online. The analysis has been weighted and is representative of a national urban sample of adults in India (aged 18+).
A majority, 53 to 76 per cent, of respondents in six of the eight countries polled (Brazil, Egypt, France, Hungary, India, and Nigeria) shared this opinion. The majority of respondents, or just under half of all respondents in the two remaining nations (Japan and the USA) shared this opinion (49 and 47%, respectively).
Similar to this, the majority view of the world's opinions about respondents' own populations were much more diverse. In Brazil, Egypt, India and Nigeria, the most prevalent viewpoint was that the population was too large and the fertility rate was too high. Respondents were also asked to rank the top three issues out of 20 when it came to population change in their nations.
Except for Hungary, where sexual and reproductive health and rights regulations bagged the second position, environmental concerns was rated as the top most priority for all the countries.
Concerns about policies pertaining to sexual and reproductive health and rights as well as human rights in general came in at third and fourth, respectively, in terms of most frequently chosen priorities.
The report notes that a staggering 257 million women worldwide are estimated to have unmet needs for safe, effective contraception, and 44 per cent of partnered women and girls do not have the right to make an informed choice about their bodies when it comes to having sex, using contraception, and seeking medical care.
Saying that the surveys in eight countries are not sufficient to generalise views for all the world, the report notes, “Still, the responses do make the case that demographic anxiety is real and, in those countries surveyed, widespread. They show that environmental concerns are indeed among the top causes of population anxiety — which might make people vulnerable to the claims of “too many” or indicate that alarmist rhetoric about “overpopulation” is influencing people’s views.”
“To be sure,” the report agrees, “there are many valid and pressing concerns related to population, such as the complex links between population size, affluence and fossil fuel consumption, and the challenges of budgeting for infrastructure, health services and pension programmes. But when we treat populations as problems, rather than people, we obscure the very real issues we need to address.”
The new report asks for a dramatic rethink of how population statistics are presented, encouraging the media and politicians to think through stories about population booms and busts. “Instead of asking how fast people are reproducing, leaders should ask whether individuals, especially women, are able to freely make their own reproductive choices – a question whose answer, too often, is no.”