Papers presented at the Seminar on Population and Sustainable Development in India, organised by Society for Social Empowerment during 1-2 April 2004.

This article presents an empirical study of population growth and environmental change using cross-section district-level data from South, Central, and West India. Environmental change is measured using a satellite-based vegetation index. Unlike prior work, the analysis treats population growth and environmental change as jointly determined, distinguishes between rural and urban populations, and distinguishes between two components of population growth, natural growth and migration. Among key findings are that environmental decline spurs rural population growth and net rural in-migration, which prompt further environmental decline; environmental improvement spurs urban population growth and net urban in-migration; and environmental scarcity spurs environmental improvement.

Contents: Biodiversity of Daringbadi Forest Ecosystem in Orissa Need Its Conservation, Women Literacy, Child Labour is a Violation of Human Rights, Employment on Agriculture, Community Based Social Marketing for Controlling Population Growth and HIV/AIDS in India, The Demographic Profile of India and Orissa, Ecological Studies on the Coastal Sand Dunes and Slacks in the Vicinity of Gopalpur-on-sea, Ganjam District, Orissa, Impact of Road Transport on Population, Population Growth and Economic Growth, Population Explosion in Indian Contest, Rapid Growth of Population Hinders Economic Development of India, Poverty Alleviation, Women Education Especially in Backward Communities for Human Resources Development with Special Reference to Southern Orissa, Rapid Growth of Population in India and HLFPPT.

Contributed articles presented at the Seminar on "Population Environment Nexus" organized by the POP-ENVIS Centre at IIPS, Mumbai on Oct. 21, 2005; with reference to India.

Twenty-First Century India is the first study of India's development giving a fully integrated account of population and development. It is built on new projections of the population for fifty years from the Census of 2001. India's population then had already passed 1 billion. Twenty-five years later it will exceed 1.4 billion, and will almost certainly pass 1.5 billion by mid-century. The projections incorporate for the first time both inter-state migration and the role of HIV/AIDS. Theyalso show India's urban future, with close to half a billion urban inhabitants by the year 2026. The implications of this population growth are then traced out in a range of modelling and analytical work. Growing numbers are found to complicate the task of achieving widespread education in a number of India's states, while other states are already experiencing declines in their school-age population. Demographic growth also contributes to poverty, and increasing divergence in social conditions among the states. As population growth slows in the country overall, the labour force continues to grow relatively fast, with difficult consequences for employment. But national economic growth could be accelerated by the 'demographic bonus' of the declining proportion of dependents to workers in the population. The book is reasonably optimistic about India's food prospects: the country can continue to feed itself. It can also enjoy higher levels of energy use, manufacturing, and modern forms of transport, while experiencing less chemical pollution. India's cities can become cleaner and healthier places to live. Perhaps the most difficult environmental issue, and the one most strongly related to population growth, is water. Some states also face severe pressures on common property resources. A policy chapter concludes the book. India's future problems are large, but in principle manageable. However, whether the country will actually achieve sustainable development for allis another matter.

This work compares the forecasts of the Second India study of the 1960s - which investigated how the nation would cope with the inevitable doubling of its population by the year 2000 - with the actual effects of India's population growth.