India enters 37-year period of “Demographic Dividend” 24/07/2019 – Posted in: Daily News – Tags:

India enters the 37-year period of DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND

 

For: Preliminary & Mains

Topics covered: Demographic dividend – advantages, Other global economies, Benefits to India

 

News Flash

Since 2018, India’s working-age population (people between 15 and 64 years of age) has grown larger than the dependent population (children aged 14 or below as well as people above 65 years of age).

  • The working-age population is going to last till 2055.
  • Many Asian economies — Japan, China, South Korea — were able to use this ‘demographic dividend’.

 

Demographic dividend defined by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as the growth potential that results from shifts in a population’s age structure.

 

How did this happen?

This transition happens largely because of a decrease in the total fertility rate after the increase in life expectancy gets stabilized.

Total Fertility Rate is the number of births per woman.

 

Highlights

  • In the late 20th century demographic dividend in Asia resulted in a seven-fold increase in the GDP of many countries.
  • In Latin America, the growth was only two-fold.
  • The countries can only harness the economic potential of the youth bulge if they are able to provide good health, quality education and decent employment to its entire population.

 

Japan

  • Japan was among the first major economies to experience rapid growth because of changing population structure.
  • Japan’s demographic-dividend phase lasted from 1964 to 2004.
  • During this phase, Japan grew in double digits.

 

China

  • China entered this stage in 1994.
  • Its growth accelerated immediately after the reforms, the years of demographic dividend helped sustain this rate for a very long period.
  • Since 1994 there have been only two years when China could not cross the 8% growth mark.

 

Singapore

  • The dividend years started in 1979 and in the next 10 years there were only two years when its economy grew at less than 7%.
  • The island country saw double-digit growth in four of these 10 years.

 

South Korea

South Korea entered this phase in 1987 and in the next 10 years there were only two years when its growth rate fell below 7%.

 

HongKong

It was 1979 when the dividend years kicked in, and the growth rate dipped below 8% in only two of the next 10 years.

 

United Nation Population Fund

  • UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.
  • Its mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
  • The organization was created in 1969.
  • UNFPA calls for the realization of reproductive rights for all.
  • It supports access to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services – including voluntary family planning, maternal health care and comprehensive sexuality education.
  • In 2018, UNFPA launched efforts to achieve three transformative results,  ambitions that promise to change the world for every man, woman and young person:
  1. Ending the unmet need for family planning
  2. Ending preventable maternal death
  3. Zero gender-based violence and harmful practices

 

Source: ET

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