India's main failing has been inability of its policy makers to generate reliable statistics. The government has appointed a National Commission on Population (NCP) to stabilise the country's population growth by the year 2045. NCP wants to do this by rewarding late marriages and birth of girls. Sadly, till date there has been no reliable statistics available on population whatsoever. So much so, it is quite possible that we could have well crossed the billion mark many years ago.

The population problem has been baring its fangs right under our nose since the time we got our independence. But, government and people alike have turned a Nelson's eye towards this menace, which today threatens to boomerang on the country's development efforts.

Planning Commission has been formed and roles have been assigned. But, the population issue seems to have been left out of the scheme of things. Instead, population has been viewed with an arithmetic twist of numbers. For instance, it is said that if population level falls, per capita living standards will also automatically rise and vice versa. But, that is not true in the real sense of the concept.

Consider the case of USA. This country has been witnessing both a rising population as well as affluent prosperity. But, on the other hand, in Russia both population and prosperity have been moving down. In India today, while on the one hand, the government is trying to reduce births on which count it has failed miserably, and on the other as a worrisome fact death and infant mortality rates are coming down.

Today, many economists argue that population boom is an asset. But, this theory does not hold good and those who believe in it are just trying to find excuses to run away from solving this pressing problem. Currently, India faces a resources crunch both in monetary and real terms. Hence, it is very important that this rising population is checked, or else development investments will suffer. This will get reflected in poor living standards. Population growth has a direct bearing on the per capita income of the populace. But, if population growth is curbed, countries are better placed to invest more per head in education, healthcare, sanitation and other productive improvements.

India's population doubled between 1947 and 1983. It has tripled since independence. But, the per capita income has only doubled in the last 50 years. Had population growth slowed down, we would have had a higher per capita income reflecting in better living standards. Also, when population growth is low there is a high human development index, similar to that in developed countries. But, when population levels are high, it is true that human index also falls.

India ranks 55th among 100 nations on the human development index. All its development efforts go waste, if population is not checked. What India needs to do now is to adopt the Chinese methodology wherein strict measures are taken to usher in education and a sense of discipline among the people to control birth rates.