Module-6: Human Population Change and Environment

●Urban environmental problems;

●Consumerism and waste products; Promotion of economic
development
●Impact of population age structure;
●Women and child welfare; Women empowerment.
●Sustaining human societies: Economics, environment, policies and
education
Urbanization

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3
 Urbanization
What is urbanization:

Increased population in cities due to migration of people from rural

areas
• Why does it occur?
• In search of employment
• For better education for children
• For better commodity availability
• For better health facilities

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 Urbanization

What is the impact of urbanization on environment?

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New-York wall street images
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 Urbanization
What is the impact of urbanization on environment?
• Increase in population density
• Closely constructed houses
• Increased traffic – traffic jams
• More need for resources –energy, water, fuel
• Stress on locally available resources
• Greater pollution – air, water, soil – waste dumping…
• Increased chance of epidemics
• Decreased aesthetic appeal of landscape
• Loss of farmland;
• Reduced species diversity;
• Increased stormwater runoff – due to construction of pavements..
• Increased risk of flooding
• Excessive removal of native vegetation;
• Ecosystem fragmentation 7
 Problems related to energy
With fast Urbanization there is an increase in need for energy and in its
utilization.

The Energy demanding activities includes:

• [Link] and commercial lighting
2. Transportation including automobiles and public transport
3. Modern life-style using a large number of electrical gadgets in
everyday day life.
4. Industries
5. A large amount of waste generation which has to be disposed off
properly using energy based techniques
[Link] and prevention of air and water pollution

This is leading to Stress on non-renewable energy sources

Threat to long term sustainability

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Important issues on energy management

• Urban planning should show concern for Efficient use of energy

1. Transportation network should be proper – no traffic congestion and no
pollution
2. Cities should be planned well for proper ventilation and drainage so that
need for energy is reduced

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How do we conserve energy?
• Search for renewable resources
• Tidal, wind, Biomass, Solar, Geothermal, Alternative fuel cells like Hydrogen cell…
• Save energy:
• Switch off lights and fans when you leave a room
• Use more of public transport
• Use energy efficient devices…
• And others which you have already studied…..

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 Water

With increased population, industrialization and urbanization there is more

need for water
Water Conservation

• Reduce water demand in Agriculture

• Rainwater harvesting and watershed management
• Other methods of water conservation
– Measures that can be taken by individuals

Measures in Agriculture:
• Decreasing run-off losses
• Reducing evaporation losses
• Storing water in soil
• Reduce irrigation losses
• Reuse 11
CONSUMERISM

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Consumerism and Waste
• Consumerism is consumption of resources by people
Consumerism is in sharp rise in the recent past – after industrialization
• Due to Increase in population
• Due to Change in life-style

• Waste generated and pollution increase with increase in

indiscriminate consumerism.

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 Consumerism and Waste

Two types of situations arise:

1. People over – population:
More people than available resources.
Per capita consumption will be less although overall consumption is more.

2. Consumption over – population:

In the so called economically developed countries,
Although people are less, they consume more.
Due to availability of sources and luxurious life styles,
At the same time more waste is generated due to indiscreet use of resources.

Which type of country will degrade the environment more?

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Paul Ehrlich and Hohn Hodlren Model
• No. of people x per capita use of resource x waste generated =
environmental impact

• Less developed countries have more people but less

per capita use of resources and waste generated.
Ultimately may be waste generated is less than
developed countries.
• If we follow US life style, we need 5 earths for the
present population of the world.

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 WASTE
PRODUCT
Any material that is
unused and rejected as
worthless or unwanted..
WASTE PRODUCTS CONTAINS
VARIOUS HARMFUL PRODUCTS THAT
EFFECT ENVIRONMENT.
They are of :
[Link] wastes
[Link] materials
[Link]
wastes [Link]
wastes
CHEMICAL WASTE CREATED BY
EXCESSIVE PRODUCTION DAMAGE
SOILS FERTILITY , WA TER
RESOURCES ….
PLASTIC AND NON-DEGRADABLE PRODUCTS
ARE DISPOSED IN SURROUNDINGS IN LARGE
SCALE
ELECTRONIC WASTE IS RAPIDLY INCREASING AS
MOBILES , OLD TELEVISIONS ,…. SO ON A RE
REPLACED BY NEW GADGETS
 HOW MUCH WASTE
DOES INDIA PRODUCE?
1. 2.01 billion tonnes of municipal waste is generated worldwide
every year .
This is projected to increase by 70% to reach 3.4 billion tonnes by
2050.
Reason: Rapid urbanization, population growth and economic
growth

2. Currently, based on calculations by the World bank, India is the

largest producer of waste, owing largely to size of its population.

3. India produces 277 million tonnes of municipal solid waste every

year, according to a 2016 estimate. That’s more than 80% of 334
million tonnes of waste generated across south Asia and about 13%
of the global waste generated every year.
EFFECTS
1. Environmental impact

2. Economic impact

3. Burning of fossil fuels

4. Mismanagement of waste

5. Gases from industrial

processes

6. Global warming

7. Nuclear accidents
 Waste Minimization
• It is a process of elimination that
reduces the amount of waste produced
in society and helps eliminate the
generation of harmful and persistent
watse, supporting the efforts to promote
a more sustainable society
• Waste minimization involves
• Redesigning products or changing
societal patterns,
• Planning over consumption and
production of waste generation,
• To prevent the creation of
waste,
• Efforts to minimize resource and
energy use during manufacture.
• For the same commercial
output, usually the less
materials are used, the
less waste is produced.

• Waste minimization usually

requires knowledge of the
production process, cradle-
to-grave analysis.
Measures to control
• Resource optimization

• Reuse of scrap material

• Waste exchanges

• Durability
 1. Resource Optimization

• Resource optimization
is
the set of processes
and methods to match the
available
resources with the
needs of the
organization in order to
achieve established
goals.
 2. Reuse of scrap material

• Scraps can be
immediately re-
incorporated at
the
beginning of the
manufacturing line
so that they do not
become a
waste product.
Many
industries routinely
do this.
 3. Waste
exchanges
• In this process the
waste of one
process becomes
the raw material
for a second
process.
 4. Durability

• Durability is the
ability of a
physical product
to remain
functional,
without requiring
excessive
maintenance or
repair.
 Comparison of consumerism and waste generation

Parameter Percent global values

USA India
Population 4.7% 16%
Production 21% 1%
of goods
Energy use 25% 3%
Pollutants/ 25% 3%
wastes
CFC 22% 0.7%
production

Japan with similar life-style of USA create less impact – 3Rs

Ethical consumerism
• It is about how you choose to spend your money and what sort of goods you choose
to buy.

• What you spend your money on affects other people and the environment.

• Ethical consumers buy things from companies that act ethically. These companies
try not to harm the environment or society.

• Trade affects the economies of other countries and groups within society positively
and negatively.

• Our consumption also affects the environment.

• Does our prosperity and happiness come at a cost to others?

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 Fair trade
When you buy certain products you are helping big Western
businesses exploit people from poorer nations.

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 An unequal world
For example:
• Western companies buy cotton and cocoa at very low prices from Africa,
Asia and Latin America.
• These companies turn them into expensive clothes and chocolate.
• When we buy these things the profit often goes to the big companies and
not to the farmers.
Do you know where the chocolates you buy come from and how much (or
how little) the producers benefit from your spending?

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Human Population and Environment

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 The biggest
environmental problem
we have now is
High Population.

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 Population explosion
• The population of humans remained well below a million mark for millions of year.
But in the past 200 years it grew exponentially and has touched 7 billions. This
unprecedented growth of human population at an alarming rate is referred to as
population explosion.

What are the causes of population explosion? ?

We should first know parameters affecting population and then we can decide how their
variation is causing population growth.

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Population Characteristics
and their variations
1. Total Fertility rate (TFR):
• The average number of children that would be born in the life time of a
woman. (Birth rate)
• It varies from 1.9 in developed countries to 4.7 in less developed
countries: The higher the TFR the more is the growth
• Employing family planning methods caused a decrease in TFR in
developed / developing countries.
• Illiteracy and religious sentiments are preventing many in rural areas
from adopting family planning methods

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 Population Characteristics and
variations among nations

2. Infant Mortality rate: It is the percentage of infants died out of those

born: The more, the less is growth
Infant survival improved due to health care facilities
• Vaccination against polio, small pox, TB.
• Antibiotics

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Population Characteristics and variations among nations
3. Replacement level: How many children survive per family – how
many people are replaced by how many children : Less no. of
replacing children means less is the growth – it is related to life
expectancy
Accident deaths, epidemics etc tend to decrease the replacement
level, while improvement in average life expectancy decreases it.

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 4. Age Structures

Human Age Distribution :It is a diagram that shows the annual population of
a particular age group. Usually male population shown on left side and
female population on right side.

Developed countries Less-developed 43

Population Characteristics
4. Age structure: Different types -Pyramid, bell and urn
shapes
Age-Structure Diagram used to illustrate growth
patterns of populations of different nations.

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Horizontal axis = Number of
 Bell shaped Pyramid shaped

USA
Canada

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 Urn shaped

Japan
Germany
Italy
Sweden
Hungary

Declining population
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Population
Characteristics
Age Structure
continued
• Pyramid shape age structure shows a growing population because in the near future more
people are entering reproductive age.

• Bell shaped age structure diagram shows a stable population – no growth no decline.

• Urn shaped age structure diagram shows declining population

Economically developed countries like USA, Canada and France show urn shape, Bell shaped
ones are shown by Japan, Germany, and pyramid shaped graph by India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia,
Nigeria

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 Population Characteristics
continued
5. Life expectancy: It is the average life period a person lives in a country.

It is improved in many countries due to improved living conditions.

Increased –Nutrition, -Sanitation, Food and to improved medical
facilities.

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Terminology related to Population
Doubling time:
• It is the time needed to double the population, Td
• Is the indicator of population growth.
• Td = 70/r where r is the annual growth rate
Zero population growth : It is the situation when
Birth + immigration = Death + emigration
Male-Female ratio: The ratio of boys and girls. Should be fairly same. But
in some regions girls are less because of infanticide.

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 Overall population growth in recent past
• Pre-industrial phase: High birth and high death – net population growth less

• Transitional phase: High birth, but low death rate due to better medical facilities – overall
growth very high – 2.5 -3%

• Industrial phase: Fall in birth rates – lowering in growth rate

• Present (post-industrial phase): Zero growth in many parts of the world

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Indian scenario

1,200,000,000

1,000,000,000

800,000,000

600,000,000

400,000,000

200,000,000

0
1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Data obtained from website of Census of India, Office of Registrar General and Census
Commissioner, India.
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Indian scenario
• India is presently the second most populated country
• Its population grew similar to other countries in the 20th century.
• Present growth is at the rate of 92 millions per annum
• It is expected to grow 4 times in the next 100 years.

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 Impact of population growth
on Environment
• Ecological Footprints
• United States - 5 hectares/person
• Developing nations - 0.5 hectare/person
• Increasing population and urbanization is damaging Earth’s essential ecology
For 2006, humanity's total ecological footprint was estimated at 1.4 planet Earths – in
other words, humanity uses ecological services 1.4 times as fast as Earth can renew them

Footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystem.

It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to
supply the resources a human population consumes, and to assimilate associated
waste. Using this assessment, it is possible to estimate how much of the earth (or
how many planet Earths) it would take to support humanity if everybody followed a
given lifestyle. 53
Our ‘Resources’ are in
Danger
• Atmospheric pollution and climate change
• Water pollution, including ground aquifers
• Deforestation and loss of oxygenation
• The oceans, coral reefs and their bounty
• National parks, wildernesses and wetlands
• Nonrenewable natural resource depletion
• Fossil fuels, mineral ores, topsoil…..

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Biodiversity is in Danger
• Humanity has spawned a species extinction to rival the 5 great
extinctions of 65 - 440 million years ago
• Recovery times from the great extinctions took 10’s of millions of
years
• Biodiversity is essential to life on Earth and holds untold treasures for
the future
• An ecological ethic is emerging

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 Global Warming
• Atmospheric CO2 is increasing, and creates greenhouse
effect.
• 3-5°C rise predicted by computer models for this
century would have major environmental impact.
• Observed change of 0.25-0.4°surface and 0.0-0.2°C
troposphere rise in last 20 years doesn’t agree with
models and may or may not be due to CO2. Humans - 6
billion tons/year of CO2 (up 500% from 1950, and
increasing)
• Other sources 200B tons/year
• Total atmosphere load - 775B tons 0.6°C rise in last 100 years
• Total earth load with oceans - 42,000B tons

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 How do we curb
the population growth?

Family planning: Several Scientific methods evolved to stop child birth.

• UN Family planning agency has funded several countries for family planning.

• In India our govt. is also funding for family planning programs

• (Ministry of Health and Family welfare)
Like educating people either directly person to person or through mass media
Funding for research on family planning methods
• NGO’s like Indian family planning association of India (FPA) are also working on this.

• In India we are targeting two children per couple

• Family planning in India started in 1952
• Several methods are available to reduce birth rate of children but not working that well in India
• Lack of education: many people are scared to use these methods
• Religious misbelieves : It is wrong in almost all religions to stop child birth

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Women and child welfare

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 Need for Women Welfare

• Women and children are the soft targets.

• They are the victims of capitalism, development and environment.
• They suffer in a number of ways because they are
 Weaker.
 Helpless.
 Economically dependent.
 Illiteracy.
 Wide Gender Discretion.

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 Issues prevalent in society and problems faced by women
Dowry
• Dowry is property or money that bride brings to her
husband on the day of their marriage.
• The practice of giving
dowry is very common in
India and other South Asian
culture.
• Payment of dowry is now
prohibited under The 1961
Dowry Prohibition Act
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 Domestic violence
Domestic Violence is extremely high because of the dowry that India
has set into play.
Female trafficking, which is sexual abuse, is a big part of the violence
problem in their society today.
Every 93 minutes a women is burnt to death due to dowry problem
and every single hour at least one woman is raped in India.

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 Female Infanticides

• Is also known as a sex selective

abortion that favors the male sex
and deselects the female sex and
because of this, India has a
low female sex ratio to that of
the men.

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 Over worked
• Many women in India are overworked. They often
work double the hours that the males do, but they are
not given credit for it.
• It is well known that women and
children work in huge numbers in
bidi-rolling, agarbatti-rolling,
bangle making, weaving, brassware,
leather, crafts and other industries.
• Yet, only 3% of these women are
recorded as laborers.

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 Chula effect
• The World Health Organization estimates
that 1.6 billion early deaths occur annually
from cooking stove pollution.
• Between 4,00,000 to 5,50,000
children less than five years and
women die each year
in India due to indoor
smoke.
• Chula smoke is the third highest
cause of disease and death, after
dirty water and lack of
sanitation.
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 Divorce
• Divorce is the final termination of a marital union,
canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of
marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony
between the parties.
• But, it is a signature of failure
for the women.

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• According to a recent report by the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF)
up to 50 million girls and women are missing from India' s
population as a result of systematic gender discrimination in India.
• In most countries in the world, there are approximately
105 female births for every 100 males.
• In India, there are less than 93 women for every 100 men in the
population.
• The United Nations says an estimated 2,000 unborn girls are
illegally aborted every day in India.

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 The policy of the women development focus in
the following ways

• Steps to eliminate violence against women.

• Ensuring equality in view of legal rights.
• Improving the economic status of women.
• Appropriate use of media.
• Increased participation of women in local self- Government.
• Enhancing community participation in Government activities
(involvement of Non-Governmental Organizations).

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 Initiatives taken by government
The government has initiated many steps and to bring an end to this social
evil, and to bring a change in the attitudes of the people in society . It is in
this direction that many laws , Acts and schemes have been initiated, like :
• The Laws favoring Girl Education.
• The Laws favoring Women's right.
• The Laws favoring Equal Property Share for a daughter.
• Other schemes for girlchild.

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 Initiatives taken in India

• Ministry of women development has been made.

• National Network for Women & Mining(NNWM) with about
20 groups in different mining
states of India is rightly
fighting for a "gender audit"
of India's mining companies.

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• Besides the government initiatives there are number of non-governmental
organization(NGOs) mostly as "Mahila Mandals" to create awareness
amongst women of remote village even to empower them, train them, educate
them and help them to become economically self-dependent. On the
international level, the United Nations Decade for Women (1975-85)
witnessed inclusion of several women related issues on international agenda.

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 CEDAW

• CEDAW (International Convention on the

Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against
Women, 1979) is one of the result of the program for
protection & promotion of
women's human right &
socio-economic upliftment.

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Women SHG (Self Help Group) in North Tamil
Nadu

• It is found that the income of the women has been

increased after joining the SHGs.
• The good practice of the women SHGs in the study
area is repayment of the loan in time. Nearly 64% of
the debtor paid their monthly due with in the time,
even some members 10% paid their due in advance.

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Swabhiman program by Smile foundation
• Swabhiman, an initiative of Smile Foundation, aims to bring
pride and dignity for our girl.
• Swabhiman is not anti-men, but it encourages women to
defend themselves and escape from violence.
• Swabhiman started getting an overwhelming response from
the participants, communities institutions and organizations
alike within a short time of
its launch in Delhi & NCR.
• During first year of its launch
Swabhiman has reached out to
around 4000 beneficiaries
through 50 communities and
organizations.
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Positivity Rising

• India has world’s largest number of professionally

qualified women.
• India has largest population of working women in
the world.
• India has more doctors, surgeons, scientists,
professors than the United States.
• Indian women today are also singers, painters,
beauty queens, and actors.

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CHILD WELFARE
75
 Problems faced by children

• Child labour.
• Mall nutrition
• No education.
• Undergo many dreadful diseases like:
 Pneumonia.
 Diarrhea.
 Measles.
 Malaria.
• Working in hazardous places to feed themselves.
• Undergo many respiratory problems due to pollution in the
environment
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 Need of child welfare

• 1 million out of 21 million babies

born every year in India abandoned
soon after their birth due to different
socio-economic reasons.
• Around 20 million children in
our country are
estimated to be
working as child labors, some of
them in
various hazardous
industries like the
match industry,
firework industry,
brassware 77
 Children in need of care and protection

• Orphans, abandoned and destitute children

• Missing or run-away children
• street and working children
• Abused, tortured and exploited children
• children indulging in substance abuse
• children affected by HIV/AIDS
• children affected by natural calamities, emergencies and man made disasters
• children with disabilities
• child beggars
• children suffering from terminal/incurable disease

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 Child rights

Right to survival: Good standard of living, good nutrition and health

Right to protection: Freedom from exploitation, abuse and inhuman treatment

Right to development: Access to education, early child care and support, social

security and right to leisure and recreation

Right to participation: Freedom of thought, conscience and religion and right to

appropriate information

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 Child protection in terms of Nutrition and care

• ICDS Integrated Child Development Services scheme

• Supplementary Nutrition
• Anganwadi Centers
• Parent education
• Girl child protection scheme
• Check on Child trafficking
• Children homes(shisuvihar/Balvihars)
• Kishori Shakti Yojana: Kishori Shakti Yojana (KSY) seeks to empower adolescent girls, so as to
enable them to take charge of their lives

[Link]

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 Existing Programmes

The existing schemes & programmes of GOI includes:

• A Programme for Juvenile Justice
• Scheme for Working Children in need of care and protection
• Integrated Programme for Street Children
• Shishu Greha Scheme
• General Grant-in-aid Scheme
• CHILDLINE-24 hour help line for children in distress
• Rajiv Gandhi national crèche scheme for the children of working
mothers
• Pilot Project to Combat the Trafficking of Women and Children for
Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Destination Areas
• Scheme for assistance to institutions/VO’s for care and support to
children affected by HIV/AIDS

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 Current Initiatives

• Amendment of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of

Children) Act, 2000
• Comprehensive Scheme “Integrated Child Protection
Programme”
• Adoption Scheme.

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Proposed Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS)

• GOI has proposed to combine its existing different child

protection schemes under one integrated scheme
• It aims to provide for care and protection of all the children in
conflict with law and children in need of care and protection.
• It proposes to involve steps to:
– Strengthen families and prevent them from breakup and
children becoming homeless and without care and protection.
– Provide support to children already outside the mainstream,
beginning from emergency outreach services to final
rehabilitation with their families/ society.

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 Sarva Siksha Abiyan
provides useful and relevant elementary education for all children in 6 to 14 age
group by 2010.
The goals of SSA
• Enrollment of all children in school, Education Guarantee Center, Alternate
School, and Back to School Campus
• Retention of all children till the upper primary stage of 2010.
• Bridging of gender and social category gaps in enrolment, retention and learning.
• Ensuring that there is significant enhancement in the learning achievements
levels of children at primary and upper primary stage.

84
 Cases of NGOs concerned with child welfare
• Action Aid India concentrates on child education and on street and working
children.
• CRY targets underprivileged children who don't have basic resources to sustain
themselves.
• Butterflies engage themselves in offering free education to poor kids. They teach
children living in slums in Delhi.
• CARE India branches in 11 states focus on girls education.
• Prayas address issues related to lack of sensitivity and infrastructure for children's
rehabilitation, education, and reintegration.

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Strategic Plan for Child Development
• Priority is given for
• Health, education, nutrition, clean and safe drinking water, sanitation and good
environment
• Access to schooling, specially for girls
• Education including health and nutrition, diseases and their causes
• Up gradation of home-based skills for girls,
• Mid-day meals scheme
• Low cost early childhood development activities

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