Also: demography, demographic dividend, demographic transition, population policy
Definition
The study of the size, structure, distribution and change of human populations through births, deaths and migration, central to planning for India, now the world's most populous country.
Deep-dive lesson:Features of Indian Society and Population. This page is a quick reference that connects the term across subjects; read the lesson for the full treatment.
India was among the first countries to adopt an official family planning programme, in 1952. Early policy focused on targets for sterilisation, and the coercive drive during the Emergency (1975–77) caused a backlash that made population control politically sensitive for years. The programme was renamed family welfare, and the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development pushed a shift from targets to reproductive rights and health. India's National Population Policy 2000 followed this approach, aiming to meet unmet needs for contraception and to reach replacement fertility.
Demographers describe a demographic transition. Societies first have high birth and death rates; death rates then fall with better health and food, causing rapid growth; birth rates fall later as education, urbanisation and women's autonomy rise; and finally both rates are low. India is in the later stages, with death rates low and fertility falling, though at different speeds across states. Kerala and Tamil Nadu reached replacement fertility decades ago, while Bihar and Uttar Pradesh still have higher fertility.
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