NEO–MALTHUSIAN THEORY OF POPULATION GROWTH AND CONTROL

NEO–MALTHUSIAN THEORY OF POPULATION GROWTH AND CONTROL:-

Neo-Malthusianism is concerned that overpopulation, as well as overconsumption, may increase resource depletion and/or environmental degradation will lead to ecological collapse or other hazards. Neo-Malthusianism is the advocacy of human population planning to ensure resources and environmental integrities for current and future human populations as well as for other species.In Britain, the term ‘Malthusian’ can also refer more specifically to arguments made in favor of preventive birth control, hence organizations such as the Malthusian League. Neo-Malthusians differ from Malthus’s theories mainly in their support for the use of contraception. Malthus, a devout Christian, believed that ‘self-control’ (abstinence) was preferable to artificial birth control. In some editions of his essay, Malthus allowed that abstinence was unlikely to be effective on a wide scale, thus advocating the use of artificial means of birth control as a solution to population ‘pressure’. Modern ‘Neo-Malthusians’ are generally more concerned than Malthus with environmental degradation and catastrophic famine than with poverty. 

PIONEERS OF NEO-MALTHUSIAN THEORY:-

Dr. SAMUEL VAN HOUTEN:- The term Neo-Malthusianism was first used in 1877 by Dr. Samuel Van Houten, one of the vice-presidents of the Malthusian League. The man who started the discussion on contraception in the Netherlands was a radical young lawyer and politician. Taking his inspiration from England he formulated an orthodox Malthusian Programme. He is supposed to have coined the word “NieuwMalthusianisme”, which gained currency as “Neo-Malthusianisme” to distinguish his acceptance of contraception from Malthus’s own advocacy of late marriage. Neo-Malthusianism is not just a campaign in favor of birth control. It is interested in understanding the consequences of rapid population growth on human conduct and behavior. Neo-Malthusian thinking like Malthus's theory also believed that the world’s resources will not be able to support the population after a certain point. Neo-Malthusian believed in abortion and birth control as a way to slow rapid population growth. They believed that food and population growth are correlated. They also believed that population growth is correlated with not just food, but also with others factors as well. 

PAUL R. EHRLICH:- He was a prominent Neo-Malthusian .He wrote the book ‘ “The Population Bomb” in 1968 .which warned of possible mass starvation, societal upheaval, environmental deterioration because of overpopulation, and advocated abortion and birth control methods The book was criticized at the time for painting an overly dark picture of the future. But while not all of Ehrlich’s dire predictions have come to pass, the world’s population has doubled since then, to over seven billion, straining the planet’s resources and heating up our climate. Paul encouraged Government intervention into the population issue. He maintains that ultimately, population growth on earth is still too high, and will eventually lead to a serious crisis. 

NEO-MALTHUSIAN VIEWPOINT:- 

A Neo-Malthusian is a person who believes in the theory of overpopulation and the original beliefs of Thomas Robert Malthus. 

       The debate about contraception started in the nineteenth century and was mainly driven by fear of overpopulation. Thomas Malthus (1766-1834), an English clergyman and economist, had calculated that the increase in population would eventually surpass the food supply ..Hunger and misery would result unless people began to marry later in life and practice sexual continence. His predictions made a profound impression. Among those who took his warnings seriously were the English freethinkers Annie Besant, Charles Bradlaugh, and George and Charles Drysdale. Unlike Malthus, however, they did not reject the use of contraceptives as a means to curb population growth. In the country, they felt should be educated in sexual matters and the use of contraceptives. 

        The population of our earth is increasing to the point of overpopulation /carrying capacity and certain laws should be in place to place to help slow or even stop overpopulation. The neo-Malthusian movement, therefore, was different from the conventional Malthusian position on two counts it stressed birth control methods and also identified the working class with the problem of overpopulation. The overcrowded industrial slums were identified as sites of moral degradation. This diverted the debate on population from issues of poverty and unequal access to resources, to birth control per se.In fact, the assumption was that access to commons or availability of resources would give the poor little reason to abstain from having more children. Neo-Malthusian thereby reinforced the ideology of private property, individualism, and capitalism. The Neo-Malthusian position found favor with the elite sentiment on the issue of over-population. The elite threatened by the growing numbers of commoners, considered birth control as an important means of checking future conflict over their property. The French delegates tried to maintain a stance of ambivalence though they were wary of contraception because it encouraged the idea of seeking sexual pleasure without taking responsibility for the consequences of the act. According to them, it devalued the institution and sanctity of marriage and family values. For the catholic church, birth control was illicit and immoral and went against the basic tenet of Christianity. Till the 1920s, most medical opinions were also against birth control, as it considered it unhealthy and immoral. The attitude started changing subsequently, as evidenced by the effort made by the British medical professions in 1921 to appeal to the Anglican Church to reconsider their position on birth control in the light of existing medical knowledge. In America too, after a court ruling in 1929 that upheld the right of doctors to prescribe contraceptives for health reasons, birth control was included in medical curricula. Birth control clinics were set up in different parts of Europe and America and marked the new phase of the birth control movement. Birth control came To be popularized by taking recourse to the less “offensive “ and more “social “terms like “family planning “or “planned parenthood”, and the emphasis was on the spacing of children and women’s health. In its bid to control sexuality and the domestic sphere of a person’s life, birth control went against the modern values of individual freedom and the right of an individual to his /her privacy. On the other hand, it also questioned the orthodoxy of the times and presented birth control as an attempt to present a choice to the individual to have a child or not. However, the source of the birth control debate was not whether individual freedom should be protected or not, but on how to control overpopulation, depopulation, or underpopulation and its consequent effect on the world. Central to the debate were the issues of migration, availability of labor, conflict over resources, and poverty. The concerns were developmental and political. After the second world war, the situation altered with several newly independent states joining the United Nations. By then the neo-Malthusian demographic transition theory was well accepted. The post-colonies or the countries of the ‘third world ‘stood out in terms of the neo-Malthusian analysis. The countries that break oil of the ditches of the colonial rule seemed to be undergoing the second stage of demographic transition, that is, they were experiencing high birth rates and low death rates. With better medical facilities and infrequent famine conditions, the population had not only stabilized but also increased at a rapid rate. 

REDUCTION OF POPULATION GROWTH:- Reduction of the population becomes a priority with the UN. The focus was on raising nutrition levels in developing countries and providing better health facilities to women and children. The proposal set up the population commission came up in 1945, which was opposed by the former USSR and Yugoslavia because another commission would only confuse matters, given the proliferation of international bodies within the UN. But the main reason for opposing the commission was because it focused primarily on “population changes “and the impending doom following the population explosion, rather than on “growth”. Examples of Neo-Malthusians – 

China - One child policy meant to slow population growth and prevent overpopulation. -Mass amounts of abortions and sterilizations were stopped by the one-child policy. 

India – Wide use of contraceptives to slow population growth.

CONCLUSION:-Neo-Malthusian base their claims and recommendations about public policy on classical Malthusian arguments, which remain controversial. It remains unclear the extent to which overpopulation and the exhausting of resources pose a threat to mankind. Therefore, it is unlikely that they can be used to justify overarching policies used to control population growth. Individuals in developed countries will remain unaffected by this growth.