Why education and empowerment are significant to population stabilisation?

Overpopulation continues to be a pressing issue globally, deteriorating the health of our planet and impacting our own well-being. As per experts, the global population grows by more than 80 million people every year. Today there are more than 7.8 billion people living on our planet and the population is projected to exceed 9 billion by 2050.

Our ever-increasing population is stressing the Earth by depleting natural resources, generating too much waste leaving behind wide-spread wastelands and polluted water bodies.

The impact of our growing numbers on the natural environment, non-renewable resources and environmental degradation has multiplied to unsustainable levels. These consumption patterns can soon surpass our planets carrying capacity and ability to regenerate.

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Many account for overpopulation as an effect of high birth rates and low mortality rates due to advancements in medical facilities and technology leading to longer life spans.

However, there are many more interrelated factors that lead to overpopulation such as progress in food production, increased migration of people to urban areas, lack of family planning consciousness, unmet needs of family planning services

And the most pressing cause of all, lack of education and awareness among females. While the world contemplates causes for overpopulation, our planet continues to deteriorate.

With this unsustainable development, where are we headed? Will we ever be able to stabilise our population?

Overpopulation in India

India is projected to surpass China and be the most populous nation as early as 2027. With a current population of more than 1.39 billion, every part of the country is a clear example of an increasing population. Be it public transport, social gatherings or shopping complexes and marketplaces – all these places are buzzing with people round the clock.

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Poverty and illiteracy have been the two major drivers of overpopulation in India. Overlooking education as a key to improved living standards and a pathway to improved earning opportunities, poor families or families living below the poverty line believe in the idea that the family members they have, the greater their chances are to earn livelihood in family.

Another issue adding to the overpopulation issue, is the early marriage of girls.  Early marriage still prevails in many parts of the country leading to girls having longer reproductive span and also bearing more children.

Case study of Project Aakar

Let’s take a look Uttar Pradesh , one of the most populous state of India to understand what Mobius Foundation's Project Aakar is doing as part of intervention for population stabilisation on the ground in the rural communities in high fertility districts. The project aiming to tackle the problem of overpopulation in India while keeping in line with the government’s plans to stabilise population is also aiming to bust old myths, and change mindsets of young people combining counselling  and delivery of contraceptives at community level. 

Trained counsellors along with community mobilisers are engaging couples around varied choice of family planning , spacing child -birth. The project also covers  education of youngsters on reproductive health, and the demerits of early marriage.

Project Aakar's counsellors travel to villages who are identified as having a high birth rate & where Family planning service uptake is too low.  We are today in Sethmau village in  Barabanki  representing  the kind of villages  Mobius Foundation reaches as part of hard to reach villages & where family planning service uptake falls in low category.

The work carried out by Mobius Foundation's intiative is chiefly done through mobile clinics where counsellors and supervisors set up temporary counselling sessions to do outreach in various villages around the state. These village clinics are making an impact by reaching young people before they start a family, and teach them the importance of family planning, empowering the people of these villages on the grass-roots level.

Project Aakar starts engaging youngsters at a very young age and visits schools in rural areas in order to spread their knowledge to a large number of students. In this Barabanki school counsellors are managing to spread awareness about reproductive health & demerits of early marriage.

The campaign thought for Project Aakar is: Raising a family is a responsibility. It is of utmost importance for every married couple to be aware of their reproductive health rights and have access to quality family planning services and methods. Projects like these play an important role for rural communities, and function as support  to the government's population policies.

Women's education and empowerment in India

For any society to develop, women need to play a central role. Their voices and participation is crucial in order to overcome patriarchal mindsets, and the road to development requires both men and women to get an education.

The positive relationship between education and women's empowerment can reduce child labour, child marriage, ilitteracy and female feticides and other evils.

Without education women will have less opportunities for making a change. Poverty, unemployment and inequality are problems that cannot be solved by man alone, and requires women's participation in an active and equal way.

When it comes to women's empowerment, the men's participation in the training is also important, as they also need to be aware of decisions that their family will take, be on board with choosing to use birth control, to have children later in life, and choosing to have a smaller family.

Having men participate in the learning can change their mindset, strengthen the family bond, and understand the bigger picture, empowering women to take decisions with them on board.

The problems and inequalities between the genders are much greater in rural India than they are in urban areas. Ten years ago, the literacy rate for women in rural areas was only 58.8 per cent, while the national average was 65.46 per cent.

There is still a long way to go for equality between men and women in literacy, as the national average for men was over 82 per cent. For Indian families in rural areas, girls sometimes play the role of a second mother by doing household work, such as collecting wood, cleaning and cooking.

This can discourage them from going to school and presents a barrier for them to get an education. This is where schemes like the Aakar project can be helpful for women in rural areas.

Educated women generally have fewer children than uneducated women and are also able to provide better care for their child at home, thus increasing the value of their children’s human capital and reducing the need for more children.

Educated mothers also use their knowledge to improve the health of their family, and knowledge about health risks can also protect them against illness and can reduce child mortality. The education of girls is emerging as an increasingly important priority in Indian society, where their education is now considered a necessity.

Education – Powerful tool stemming population growth

Education is one of the most powerful tools. The effect of education on overpopulation cannot be over-stated. Currently, nearly 40 per cent of pregnancies worldwide are unintended, which leads to a staggering 80 million births per year.

An increased focus on education around family planning, birth control methods, and improved access to contraceptives can help in population stabilisation and sustainable development.

When looking at countries where the population growth rates have slowed down, all countries with high levels of education have slowed the population growth, without enforcement through child policies.

There is an inverse relationship between education levels and childbearing in most countries, where higher education levels lead to higher prosperity levels, and can help poor countries develop.

Overpopulation and poverty

People living below the poverty line are often unable to afford or access education for their children, yet education is a crucial tool that can help developing countries out of poverty. This can lead to an unsustainable cycle where families below the poverty line cannot reach prosperity for generations.

This is where the governments have to step in and make sure that everyone are provided an education, without discriminating between boys and girls for providing them opportunities, girls have to be given an equal chance if we are to rid our societies of poverty and overpopulation.

Better education leads to less poverty, better health, more job opportunities and smaller families naturally. With an added emphasis on women's education and empowerment, we can reach higher levels of development and prosperity more effectively, and we need to ensure women's participation in the process.

We have now seen a number of issues with overpopulation, and how they can be dealt with in order to stabilise the population growth in rapidly growing regions.  

Ground Interventions in hard-to-reach rural communities in High TFR districts like Project Aakar,’s engagement and counselling drives and government population policy 2021-2030 are of high importance for sustainable development in the country. The special emphasis on youth empowerment and education on family planning can go a long way in creating a viable and sustainable future for all.