Our appetite to consume is bigger than our capacity to produce. This appetite is not something natural or innate as our forebears have lived for innumerable centuries at subsistence level in a more contented state than we are currently in with our egregious practice of unbridled consumption. Manipulated by pseudo-scientific notion of immeasurably large resources of our planet and capitalist measure of cultural advancement we have in an evolutionary process worked up an appetite for a level of consumption which is not only unsustainable but has also wreaked havoc with the environments and ecology affecting the very foundation of human society. One of the factors responsible for this unmanageable chaos on the earth is the unprecedented population growth prompted by modern medical facilities which have lowered infant mortality rate and increased the average human age. Poverty and ideology must also be factored in while studying our case.

The impact of medical facilities on population growth is universal though the consequences have been varied. In some societies such as Japan it has resulted in an increased number of senior citizens making longevity a source of concern instead of a note of triumph. Power wielders and economic planners see longevity as economic loss; old people produce less and consume more. Ironically, in the case of senior citizens who are relieved from drudgery, the capitalist notion of consumption is upended. ‘Produce fast, consume maximum and die before your natural death’ seems to be a never-uttered arcane capitalist slogan in the umbra filled corridors of power.

The world with its dwindling resources is concerned about the fast growing population. Even China which once in its whipped up revolutionary zeal declared that every person that came into being had one mouth and two hands was forced to adopt one child policy proving that in a world driven by unrestrained consumerism one mouth needed more than two hands could produce. In the Punjab, for that matter in the entire country, where premium is placed on ignorance born of primordial fear, exponential increase in the number of ‘mouths’ is not a cause for concern and hence never generates a serious debate on official and popular level. Inter play of myriad factors have created a situation where totally unplanned population expansion considered to be ticking bomb can literally pose an existential threat to the very foundations of our body politic. We will briefly focus only on a few factors which are highly relevant in our specific socio-cultural context. Working and lower middle classes produce more children due to economic reasons; greater the number of family members, better the chances of supplementing the meager family income. Schooling of children is a luxury, they cannot afford. Children as young as six year old become part of informal workforce notwithstanding the so-called laws against child labour. They work in affluent households and workplaces with no absolutely check on the violation of their basic rights, which occur frequently at times away from the public eye and at times in full public glare. Almost all the working children suffer indignity and abuse regardless of the fact where they are employed. Homes, shops, auto workshops, kilns, kiosks and road side restaurants are experienced by children as places where fear and danger lurk. Families are more concerned, out of economic compulsion of course, about the pittance their children get paid than their safety, physical and psychological. If you ask poor families why they do not adopt family planning, they snap at you; a child is a God’s gift (Khuda di dain). In addition to economic compulsion, ideological factor also influences their thinking though subconsciously on the question of population growth.