Asian Studies

Ever increasing population is posing a serious question for the survival of our generations to come. We are bound by limited resources on this earth and the number of resource utilizers to the resource producers is on the rise, thus causing a serious threat and dragging us to the point of cerebration. Adding insult to the injury is the fact that increasing population is severely causing the social, economic and environmental problems like depletion of species and habitats, fossil fuels, minerals and ever increasing pollution. Keeping all of these factors in mind, the purpose of this report is to highlight some of the problems and challenges that the subcontinent is going to face in the future years with respect to over-population, environmental deterioration and ecological hazards (Karan, 2004).

    The problem in the subcontinent is that illiterate clerics foolishly brainwash people to believe that birth control is a heinous sin and is prohibited in the religion (Islam). Such lobbies are so strong that even the governments dont dare to try implementing laws and policies against such clerics. Either people are misguided by clerics or they are uneducated to understand the crux of the matter. People are either shy or unaware of using condoms or contraceptive pills.

    With the increasing advancements in technology and improvement in health services death rates are declining and birth rates are increasing at the same time. Such advanced health services are now available in the far flung areas and villages of the subcontinent. With no concept of birth control and family planning, in such areas, coupled with easily accessible health services, the population in such areas is increasing very rapidly.

    The problem with increasing population is that as there are more people they drive more cars, throw away more trash, use more electricity, use more resources and cut down more trees resulting in the environmental degradation.
Challenges for the future

    With the excessive industrial advancements the planetary ecosystem is disturbed. And due to the factors such as urbanization and deforestation pose serious challenges for the future.  Some of the great ecological concerns are the soil erosion, urban pollution, desertification, pesticide misuse, water logging and salinity, fresh water and marine water pollution, climate change and global warming. Some of the major challenges are

Water pollution Increasing number of industries dump their Effluents, chemical waste, discharge of sewage and contaminated water, toxic substances, nuclear wastes and solid wastes in the rivers which pollute the water. The excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers also contribute to water pollution. And since the trend has started to use excessive chemicals for the production of agriculture, it will be a major challenge to gain control over that. Increasing number of people means increasing number of industries to meet the demands of the people and increasing number of industries means more and more dumping of waste materials and effluents in the water. Water being the basic necessity for human survival, this is one of the biggest challenge for the future of the subcontinent (Kapor, 2002).
Complimenting to the previous challenge, Arabian Sea is turning into a sewage dump environmental deterioration is on the rise in the subcontinent with no properly maintained ecosystems, eroded mountainsides, poisoned waterways and lost arable land to sea intrusions. All the industry waste is dumped into river which flows into the sea endangering the lives thousands of fishes and marine animals that live underneath. This is causing great issues and problems for the sustainability of the ecosystem in rivers and canals that are used not only for irrigation but to fulfill the needs of thousands of households who use the water. Also, the fact that all the rivers in the subcontinent are finally drained into the Arabian Sea, every year cases are reported to have endangered whales and dolphins coming onto the sea shores dead. Moreover, not only the wastes from industries is causing this disaster, but, pollution caused by sea transport such as oil spills from tankers and old model ships used for transportation which leak oil and other forms of fuel into the sea have also caused the water to become opaque rather than clear. This is one of the reasons that most of the big coastal cities do not have clear beaches for tourists and the locals.

Moreover, as the subcontinent is not developed as yet to have proper purification systems in place, therefore the rate of growth of dieriah amongst children and elders is the highest in the subcontinent as compared to other regions in the world (Haq, 2004).

As it is obvious from the discussion above that due to health related issues, the living standards of the subcontinent are deteriorating day by day.  With the increasing population and scarcity of food and water resources it will be really difficult for people to maintain standards of living. They will have to compromise their living standards and may have to give up some of their luxuries for others survival.
Furthermore, Scarcity of food and water resources will lead people to die of hunger. With the already soaring grain prices it will be a big challenge to provide meal to everyone. As with the wheat crisis of 2008 in mind, it will be a very big challenge for the subcontinent to provide food to everyone and that too to the increased number of people and less resources available at high prices.

In addition, the increasing population, environmental deterioration, limited resources and social disparities, new diseases will become common and spread easily. And poor children, unable to afford medical expenses, may die of diseases or illness at birth.

Due to increase in population, another challenge that the subcontinent faces is of waste management system.  With the increase in the air, water and land pollution, it will be a big challenge to maintain proper waste management system to dump the poisonous waste.

Growing of population means growing of crops to satisfy demand for food which will place more strain on soil and further destroy the land. So the use of proper channels to grow crops is a must and a big challenge at the same time (Wasson, 2008).

Increased population means increase in sharing of political power among the individuals. As the number of people increase, there will be more sharing of powers and less power will be available to individuals.

More people mean more exploitation of resources and chances of early depletion of scarce resources. So the governments will have to make sure that they evenly distribute the resources among the stakeholders and the resources are not wasted.

Violation of basic human rights Men dont even bother asking their wives if they want more children or not. They treat them like child producing machines, hence violating their basic human rights. This can end if both men and women are educated but as the number of people increase, it will be much more difficult to educate people.

Businesses scream that it hurts their bottom line. There are many organizations who are working against the ecological destruction. Traditionally business used to exist with the mission of improving their bottom lines (profits) but now with more awareness and higher responsibility to all stakeholders businesses of the new world order are evolving with the concept of triple bottom line (people, planet and profit) to address the issues of environmental deterioration. Now the major responsibility lies with the government to ensure the implementation of triple bottom line concepts at each level of every organization (Hossain, 1999).

    With the increasing population and increasing ecological hazards the present scenario gives a very gloomy outlook for the generations to come. It is time when the governments in the subcontinent will have to identify the reasons for the above mentioned problems and come up with the solutions very quickly before it is too late. Although the businesses are growing very rapidly in the sub-continental region, they are not realizing the costs that the future generations will have to bear.

    Many of the Indian scholars believe that in order to overwhelm such problem we will have to turn vegetarian as vegetable growth take less land than the cattle growth there will be less land destruction for the growth of food and there will be more food available as a result.

    Governments role is very important in this regard. It has to be very strict against illiterate clerics who take unfair advantage of their positions. Educating people is also important because many people are not even aware of proper usage of condoms and many are even shy of buying condoms (Haq, 2002).

    Governments role becomes even more important when it comes to damages caused by industrial waste. So the government in the subcontinent will have to make environment friendly laws and regulations, which are followed in other parts of the world, and make sure that the organizations follow such laws.