Preparing for the Twentith first Century: India and China

The population explosion of China and India is in general what is holding each country back from becoming competitive powers in the developing world. With India's population at more than one billion and China's population at 853 million, the global effect on security, food, energy, and the environment will be immense. Both countries have tried to persuade couples to limit family size. However, the Indian government has not been as successful as China. The Indian government has had greater difficulty reaching into villages to try and force peasants to limit the number of children they can bear. India has greater localized poverty, illiteracy, and child mortality. Therefore, the desire to have children in order to enhance family income remains strong. Forced sterilization, mistrust of government, dangerous and inefficient contraceptive devices have caused a powerful public reaction against limiting family size. Even if adequate birth control were available the response to limit family size would probably still be negative because of the cultural and religious diversity that exists in India-something China has not had problems with. China has had some success in being able to

The issues being faced by these two countries are not their problem alone. Developed countries will also feel the impact. They must not only help India and China but also educate their own inhabitants for the problems that will arise. Through school teachers can inform pupils of these problems. Students can then study the outcomes of the problems and what can be done to ease the strains.

Clashes within the countries are not the only problems China and India have to deal with. Both countries have rivaled with their neighbors for years. This diverts the efforts to prepare these countries for the twenty-first century. The countries must now worry about their national security. Money that could be spent on handling population growth and improving the country's economy must now be spent on protecting the country. China and India rank considerably high in global military power. China possesses land-based missiles and continues to test nuclear devices. India has the ability to become a nuclear power. (178) At a time when both these countries need to invest in long-term growth in order to catch up to the developed countries, they have invested their resources in military related production rather than commercial export.

A way of reducing population growth would be through industrialization. This would move the Chinese and Indian economies into manufacturing and services. Therefore urbanizing their population and undergoing a demographic transition. The creation of industrialism in these two countries is central to them preparing for the twenty-first century. This would strengthen the countries defense base, reduce dependence on foreign markets, and enhance the country's national income. However, the pace of industrialism in India has not been enough to keep up with its population increases. While the economy did grow from 1950-1980

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