Indian clock tells story of most populous nation

clock is located.

Overpopulation has long been a concern, with the government establishing a nationwide family planning program in 1952.

But it was a controversial enforcedsterilization push in the 1970s that sparked public debates and spurred the institute to create the clock, Shekhar said.

Every day, security guards change the numbers using projections of the natural growth rate—the difference between the number of births and the number of deaths per 1,000 a year—derived from government and UN estimates.

“We feel good when we update the board, as passersby can also see the growing population numbers,” 56-year-old security supervisor Salunkhe V.V. told AFP.

The current projections estimate that India’s population increases by just under 41,000 people a day—one every two seconds—or about 15 million a year.

Boon or bane?

India’s current fertility rate is two births per woman, just under the replacement threshold of 2.1, and down from government estimates of 4.8 in 1981.

The fertility rate varies across the country, with poorer states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar—boasting a combined population of more than 325 million—having the highest rates, according to a 2019 government survey.

In contrast, the two wealthiest states of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have fertility rates of 1.56 and 1.54 respectively, far below the average, according to the survey.

Family planning has largely been left to women, with less than one in 10 men using condoms, while female sterilization was at nearly 38 percent, according to the government’s 2019-2021 National Family Health Survey. Shekhar, 49, was drawn into studying population from a young age, fascinated and “agitated” by large crowds of people everywhere he went.

“I used to hate these numbers,” the fertility and social demography expert said.

“But after I got my Master’s in Statistics, I thought, ‘Let us understand this, is it a problem? Or can it really be solved?’”

Shekhar believes the large numbers don’t to human rights violations.

The CHR appears to agree that even with supposed ‘safety measures,’ activists continue to be unprotected and violated. As my colleague Bernardine de Belen and I have written, it is not difficult to find a pattern.

And this pattern too, with the thousands of desaparecidos, is hard to deny.

It is simple, really—many desaparecidos are activists, state forces are often found to be the perpetrators of their cases, the families are denied justice either by state forces themselves or the court.

Authorities even add salt to injury often by red-tagging the victims, trying to justify their disappearance. This is seen in Capuyan’s case most recently.

It is a simple and ‘effective’ way of political repression.

It is one of the tactics of fascists. Justice and truth are elusive in these cases.

The surfaced are the exception, not the rule.

And even then, the surfaced suffer through navigating their trauma their entire lives.

The pattern is done over and over again to silence those who call for change and justice, to silence those who truly serve the people.

It is old, perpetrators might call it a ‘classic,’ but victims and their families would call it tired.

Not all patterns, even when they are a ‘classic’ are meant to continue.

We call on the government, especially those who lead the state forces, to finally break the pattern. Steer away from the perversion of your role.

Those who were tasked to protect should actually protect, especially the most vulnerable.

We call on the government to attend to Capuyan and De Jesus’ case.

Surface Dexter and Bazoo. Break the pattern of enforced disappearances! Surface all the desaparecidos!

Website: tonylavina.com. Facebook: tonylavs Twitter: tonylavs have to be a ticking time bomb if authorities focus on raising people’s quality of life.

Education and health outcomes—such as falling infant and maternal mortality rates —have improved since 1982, and India’s economy has grown to become the fifthlargest in the world.

But in many cities, residents battle for resources while facing water shortages and air and water pollution.

Youth unemployment for the ages of 1524 stood at 23.2 percent last year, according to the World Bank.

The overall jobless rate was 7.7 percent in May, data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy showed.

Shekhar said a key concern was that “India will become older before it becomes richer.”

“For that (not to happen), we need to have people be skilled, and have employment opportunities for a huge, young, bulge of population.” AFP