What are the causes of High Birth Rate in India ?

While we have succeeded in bringing down our death rate we have not been able to control the birth rate in our country. Come reasons are listed here.

1. Early marriages are one of the major cause for the high birth rate. According to the law it is not permissible for girls to get married before the age of eighteen years and boys before twenty-one years. But in many rural and backward areas people are married early and even child marriages are prevalent. This generally leads to a larger number of children being born. Increase in social awareness is the only way to solve this problem.

2. Poverty and illiteracy are two other factors. Children are seen as additional working hands in poorer families. It is felt that they can contribute to the family’s income and also support their parents in their old age. In reality, in a larger family it is harder to provide proper food, nutrition, and education for all the children. Thus, more children are condemned to being illiterate. Illiteracy, especially amongst women again leads to a larger number of children.

3. The preference of a male child is still very strong in our country because of religious beliefs and social conditioning. Even educated people keep on having children, as they want a male child.

As we have seen earlier, our country has made remarkable progress in the field of agriculture and industry. However, the unmanageable growth in population has prevented the benefits of this development from reaching all the people. This leads to scarcity of food, shelter, and employment among the people of our country. Thus, the biggest challenge before our country today is to check the population growth.