Ruchi Verma observes that the impact of population growth on financial inclusion of the marginalised communities varies from rural to urban set ups. In India, over 60% of the population still lives in rural areas. The world average is 40 per cent. This makes a huge difference in how the economic indicators changes with overpopulation and how it affects the weaker sections, economically.
There is a huge and direct impact of population dynamics on the poverty parameters and sustainable development. Poverty, absolute or relative, is highly sensitive to population growth patterns and demographics.
The myriad population variables such as rate of increase, the rural-urban divide, age demographics, gender demographics, stratification, etc., are all indicators of the economic prosperity of a society. These have an impact on the development prospects and associated markers indicating economic growth and stratification.
When there’s an increase in population, there’s a burden on the resources available and the economic opportunities at disposal for the common man. Overpopulation leads to an unfair divide of haves and have nots in the population spectrum. The rift or the gap may keep increasing if appropriate policies are not devised and implemented further leading to social unrest.
Also, among the have nots, the disabled, indigenous communities and the marginalised groups are highly vulnerable and first to be impacted in the increasing divide of the haves and the have nots. Their already marginalised existence is further jeopardised when an increase in population leads to economic stress.
Well-intended economic policies and administrative initiatives are needed to immunise such groups and communities from the economic impacts of rapid population growth.
The rural-urban divide
The impact of population growth on financial inclusion of the marginalised communities varies from rural to urban set ups. In India, more than 60 per cent of the population still lives in rural areas. The world average is 40 per cent. This makes a huge difference in how the economic indicators changes with overpopulation and how it affects the weaker sections of the society, economically.
In rural India, a large number of people are farmers engaged in sustenance farming. Agriculture is primarily dependent on the monsoon rains in India and owing to climate change; the unpredictable nature of weather events has already caused a lot of stress to the farmers.
In these circumstances, the pressure on agricultural resources increases a lot with rapid population growth. Land which is available for cultivation per person decreases because of increase in population. For sustenance farmers, smaller farming land means lesser income which is anyway dependent on the rains now unpredictable due to climate change. So, unsustained population growth can lead to poverty among the weaker sections in rural India.
In urban India, for that matter, there is an increasing population of migrant workers who come to cities in search of better opportunities for themselves and their children. A lot of these migrants come from rural India and smaller towns and cities.
There is a high level of competition for employment opportunities among the educated and the professionals but it is worse for the unskilled labourers. The situation worsens for the uneducated, migrant and unskilled labourers. With limited skills and shrinking employment opportunities because of growing population, more and more such workers are subjected to poverty and homelessness.
The lack of financial capacity leads to their children losing out on quality education and that further leads to lack of opportunities and the chain continues to propagate.
Financial inclusion
Financial inclusion can be defined as the process that ensures there is equal and ensured access to financial services and, when needed, availability of timely and adequate credit at affordable costs especially for the weaker sections of the society, low-income groups and the vulnerable groups.
It is a very important process as it provides economic support and credit when there is a need for investments such as education, agriculture or for contingencies such as medical even agricultural. These means of financial aid are crucial for weaker and marginalised groups.
Financial inclusion is a very important process in development. It includes integration of the financial services to aid and assist the poorest of the poor that are in the financial services circuit. Financial inclusion of the marginalised and weaker sections of the society helps in creating employment opportunities, creating skilled labour force and reducing poverty.
It also includes enabling enhanced participation of the citizens in the process to ensure informed decisions and increasing access of all groups, strong and weak, to banks.
In India, 80 per cent of the adults had a bank account in 2017 as opposed to the 53 per cent in 2014 and in 2017, 77 per cent of Indian women had bank accounts increased from 43 per cent in 2014 – as per the World Bank’s Global Financial Inclusion Database or Global Findex report (2017).
Today, more and more financial institutions are focusing on ‘poor’ customers which were not the case earlier. There has been a constant increase in the last-mile connectivity when it comes to financial services.
Marginalised groups
One of the largest distress social groups in India today is that of the tribal communities. More than half of India’s tribal population doesn’t reside in their traditional habitats and have moved out to generate livelihood.
Tribal population is sensitive and fragile – easily impacted by demographic, economic and environmental changes. The migration of tribal groups is primarily triggered by economic distress because their traditional sources of income are now either extinct or difficult to procure or inaccessible due to some new law in effect. Rapid population growth further distresses these sources.
More than half of India’s 104 million tribals are now living outside the nearly 900 blocks with a majority tribal population. The 2011 Census had also reported that between 2001 and 2011 there was a 32 per cent reduction in the number of villages with 100 per cent tribal population.
The tribals are primarily dependent on forest resources and agriculture. The livelihood crisis – that has been triggered by overpopulation, increased human activity, human-induced environmental degradation and ‘non-tribals’ intruding their habitats – is causing the distress and the migration. In the years between 2001 and 2011, as per the Census, the number of tribal cultivators reduced by ten per cent and the number of tribal agricultural labourers increased by nine per cent.
Another group that may severely be impacted with overpopulation is that of the disabled. As per the 2011 Census, of India’s population of 121 crore, 2.68 crore were disabled – making up a little more than two per cent of the population. Of these, 56 per cent or 1.5 crore are males and 44 per cent or 1.18 crore are females. A majority of them, about 69 percent, live in rural India.
There is an existing gap in access to resources, education, employment opportunities to the disabled. India is one of the signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) that focuses on the empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.
As part of this, India has to make sure that there are no hindrances for the persons with disabilities. There are several laws in India as well that protect the rights of the disabled. However, an increase in population only worsens situations by putting pressure on the limited resources available for the disabled.
Ruchi Verma is a media researcher with The History and Heritage Project – A DraftCraft International Initiative to document details, analyse facts and plug lacunae generated by oversight or to further national or foreign agenda in History and Heritage Across India and Beyond Borders.