Aspiring for good Governance on the part of the land’s people and the extent to which its successive governments have measured upto that daunting task seem to have sidelined people’s role in bridging the two aforementioned sides to the nation’s wellness. In a certain sense, the country’s people as a mass have been contributing enormously in a negative way by adding an unviable number of additional mouths to be fed year after year, looking the other way as it were at the already unmanageable population, earning the dubious distinction as the world‘s second most populous nation currently and heading to be the most populous by the year 2030. Has the land’s mass taken the line from the scriptures that “Doing one’s duty and not the result there of” seriously? (Karmanye adhikaarasthe…). In the context of unabating expansion of India’s total headcount, one is obliged to take a peek at many relevant issues that demographers are the most qualified to debate and suggest measures. Focus in this column is on the age at which the land’s women begin to bear children.

Families bugged by poverty and yet not limiting the number of children in their midst, a feature that was common until a few decades ago in all cross sections of the land’s population seem to have witnessed perceptible change while some other features continue to keep the demographers engaged.

The frequently published demographic data on the share of urban and rural residents in the country’s total population steadily raising the share of urbanities seems to gain credence due to one more less known feature, as revealed in a report published early this week in a widely circulated daily, namely, number of children born to teen mothers rising steadily and also that 79 percent of these teenage pregnancies were reported in urban areas. Experts say the internet plays a major role since it exposes teenagers to diverse cultures and teens now feel the compelling need to have boyfriends and girlfriends. Sociologists have observed that ignorance and poor judgement sometimes leads to unwanted pregnancies, the outcome of which needs no elaboration.

The legendary playwright T.P. Kailasam (1884-1946) known for his witticism, prophetically has said: “Familiarity leads to familyarity” as if to be far ahead of times of sociologists of our times.