The State of Population and Development – #PopulationAndDevelopment

A #WebPolicyTalk series by the #IMPRI Center for Human Dignity and Development (CHDD)

The #IMPRI Center for Human Dignity and Development (CHDD) is carrying out a discussion series called The State of Population and Development – #PopulationAndDevelopment.

The #WebPolicyTalks are conducted via Zoom webinars and streamed live on Facebook. The event video is available on the IMPRI YouTube Channel, thereafter. A recording of the session is also available on the #WebPolicyTalk: Live at IMPRI podcast, on Spotify and Google Podcasts. An event report is published based on the deliberations and wider dissemination takes place through media coverage.

The audience is composed mostly of policymakers, practitioners, researchers, faculty, and University and college students across India and other countries.

The outcome of the deliberations is disseminated through various social media platforms and media outlets and is aimed at contributing to the future courses of action for policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and civil society organizations.

Moderator

Devender Singh
Global Studies Programme Fellow,
University of Freiburg, Germany;
Visiting Senior Fellow, IMPRI

About the Series: The State of Population and Development – #PopulationAndDevelopment

Population and development have close interlinkages; one affects the other and gets affected. Population dynamics encompassing issues of population growth, fertility and reproduction, mortality and morbidity, gender equality, aging, as well as population mobility and distribution, The population size, growth, age – and sex-structures, locations, and migration are important population characteristics that determine the make-up of a society and affect its development trajectory and parameters.

The interlinkage effect is visible in the country’s consumption, production, employment, income distribution, poverty and social protection, including pensions. This, in turn, raises the stakes in initiatives for ensuring universal access to health, education, housing, sanitation, water, food and energy – all national sustainable development priorities. In India, efforts to reduce poverty and improve living conditions for a large and growing population tend to place mounting pressures on the finite resources, challenging environmental sustainability, and contributing to climate change and natural disasters. Also, when high fertility rates are the result of unplanned pregnancies and births, it points to limited access women have to reproductive health services, and imbalances in terms of women’s autonomy and gender equality.

Population dynamics carry more than challenges. They also provide opportunities for sustainable development. One such opportunity is the demographic advantage that India has due to its large young and economically active population. This advantage can create the space needed to increase investments in enhancing human capabilities, which, in turn, can have a positive influence on growth and development. Furthermore, migration and urbanisation can also be harnessed for contributing positively to sustainable development.

Hence at every level, academic as well as the general public, research as well as policymaking, these interlinkages need to be recognized and addressed. Indian academics in general and population scientists, in particular, generate substantial evidence but it remains confined in the academic journals and publications. On the other hand, policymakers and programme planners are not well versed with demographic techniques and analysis. As a result, population dynamics and their linkages with development are often not factored in development policies and programmes. There is a need to bring the two together.

In order to address this, IMPRI plans to catalyse a “network of practitioners” comprising policymakers, programme planners, academics/institutes, research institutes who can bring this relationship between population dynamics and sustainable development to the fore in public debate. This network of practitioners will be catalysed through different mechanisms such as consultations, meetings, publications, etc.

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