The hot sandy life of India is interrupted by an abrupt problem in population status. In March of 2001, India became the second country after China to cross the one billion mark. Their current population is now 1,027,015,247, which makes it about 344 people per square kilometer. India contributes to 16% of the world's population, and is located on only 2.4% of the land. It's hard to take in the fact that a country slightly larger than 1/3 the size of the United States can have so many people!

~Every day more of your wildlife disappears because of deforestation.
~The air is polluted from factory smoke and vehicle emissions.
~There is approximately one female for every one male, so one day you will be able to find the perfect partner.
~5.1 million of your fellow citizens are living with HIV/AIDS.
~You are at a high risk of diseases such as bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, typhoid fever, chikungunya, dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, and malaria.
~Out of the 100 people you saw at the bazaar today, only 61 were able to read and write (about 70% were men).
~Between 1991 and 2001, the population of your country increased by 21.34%.
~With the large preference for male babies throughout the country, there are only 927 females for every 1000 males in the country. This creates the problems of feticide (the killing of a fetus), infanticide (the killing of an infant), and later in life, forced suicide, by many women.

India, however, recognizes its flaws (as caused by the population) and has set out in many ways to fix them. Even though some of these attempts have ended badly, a few have been effective.
The Indian government started with the Five Year Plans in 1951. That soon progressed all the way to the Eighth Five Year Plan that launched the Child Survival and Safe Motherhood Program. Efforts were made to provide ante-natal, intra-natal, and post-natal care to women.