Revision summary
Deaths fell faster than births after mid-century, which produced India’s population explosion. Momentum from a young age structure continues even as fertility declines. Early marriage, son preference, and weak contraception kept births high in poorer belts. Remedies are girls’ schooling, spacing, women’s work, and quality family welfare. Coercive sterilisation targets are not a durable solution.
Model answer
Introduction
Population explosion in India means a long phase in which deaths fell faster than births, so numbers rose sharply after 1951. Causes are demographic and social; remedies must slow fertility without coercive excess, and an 8-mark answer should keep both halves.
Body
Causes
- Death rates fell with vaccines, antibiotics, and food security, while birth rates stayed high, producing the classic explosion of the second demographic-transition stage.
- A young age structure keeps the number of potential parents high even when the total fertility rate has begun to fall, so growth has momentum.
- Early marriage, son preference, and limited female schooling and paid work sustain higher fertility in poorer districts.
- Weak spacing of births and uneven access to contraception, especially in parts of the Hindi heartland including Uttar Pradesh, delayed the fertility decline.
- Poverty and informal labour make children an old-age and farm-labour support, so the cause is not only “lack of awareness.”
Suggestions
- Raise the age at marriage in practice, not only in law, through girls’ secondary schooling and delayed first birth.
- Expand spacing methods, postpartum contraception, and Mission Parivar Vikas–type focus on high-fertility districts, with male participation.
- Link women’s paid work, property, and health insurance to smaller desired family size.
- Urban housing, nutrition, and child survival must stay strong so parents do not seek extra births as insurance.
- Avoid sterilisation targets as the sole tool; quality of care and women’s consent are the durable path.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD D[Falling death rate] --> E[Population explosion] Y[Young age structure] --> E S[Early marriage son preference] --> E E --> R[Schooling spacing womens work]
Conclusion
India’s population explosion came from falling deaths, a young age structure, early marriage, and unequal contraception. Combat it with girls’ schooling, spacing, women’s work, and district-focused family welfare, not with panic or one-method coercion.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
Evaluate the role of Information Technology and Internet in social empowerment.
Next question in the 2022 paper (Q5). View answer →
-
Has India already left the explosion phase?
Fertility is much lower than in 1971–91, but absolute numbers still rise because of momentum and uneven state rates.
-
Is a two-child law the main suggestion?
Law without schooling, spacing, and women’s work repeats coercion. Quality services and delayed marriage are the better 8-mark line.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2023 · Q5 · UPGS1 · 8 marks
'Unemployment is the only cause for the prevalent poverty in India' – Comment. -
2023 · Q6 · UPGS1 · 8 marks
Do you agree with the statement that crime against women in India is increasing? -
2023 · Q15 · UPGS1 · 12 marks
Evaluate the role of woman organisations in woman empowerment. -
2023 · Q16 · UPGS1 · 12 marks
The process of urbanization leads to development or devastation in the society. Write your views. -
2021 · Q5 · UPGS1 · 8 marks
Do you agree that urbanization and slums are inseparable? Explain. -
2021 · Q14 · UPGS1 · 12 marks
Why is social empowerment of women necessary for inclusive development? Elaborate in detail. -
2021 · Q16 · UPGS1 · 12 marks
Highlight the salient features of India’s Population Policy (2000). Suggest some measures for population stabilization. -
2021 · Q17 · UPGS1 · 12 marks
Examine the nature of urbanization in India and discuss the social implications of the fast pace of urbanization.
More from this paper
Q1 · UPSC Mains 2022 · UPGS1 · 8 marks
Describe the salient features of Mauryan Art and Architecture.
Indian culture
Mauryan art is court sandstone: Ashokan pillars, the Sarnath lion capital, and polished yaksha figures. Architecture adds Barabar Ajivika caves, early stupas at Sanchi and Sarnath, and timber palaces at Pataliputra. High polish and animal capitals are the signature, not later temple shikhara. The style is imperial and mixed religious, not only Buddhist monastery building.
Q2 · UPSC Mains 2022 · UPGS1 · 8 marks
Throw light on the nature of Renaissance in Uttar Pradesh in the 19th Century.
Uttar Pradesh — history, culture and society
The nineteenth-century UP Renaissance was regional: Hindi letters at Banaras, Urdu at Lucknow, and the Aligarh movement. Bharatendu’s print and the Hindi–Urdu controversy made language a public question. Sir Syed’s MAO College, 1875, is the main educational monument of the Muslim strand. Sabhas, Arya Samaj, and girls’ schooling made it social as well as literary. It is not a copy of the Italian Renaissance.
Q3 · UPSC Mains 2022 · UPGS1 · 8 marks
Illustrate the contributions of nationalist leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak in the struggle for the freedom of press.
Modern Indian history
Tilak used Kesari (Marathi) and Mahratta (English) from 1881 as nationalist organisation. The 1897 Rand-plague trial and the 1908 Mandalay sentence made him the leading press prisoner. Section 124A was shown as a gag on political comment, not only on violence. Home Rule later carried the same papers into mass swaraj teaching. Press freedom for him was a political right, not a commercial privilege.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.