In China, the government promoted a "one-child norm" in its Population Policy. What kind of Malthusian theory was it adopting?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Preventive checks
Option (1) Preventive checks — Correct. Malthus called the voluntary ways of reducing population growth ‘preventive checks’, such as postponing marriage or practising sexual abstinence or celibacy. They act on the birth rate. A one-child norm also limits the number of births, so it belongs to this kind of check.
Option (2) Negative checks — Incorrect. There is no such term in Malthus’s theory; he spoke of preventive and positive checks.
Option (3) Positive checks — Incorrect. Positive checks are famines and diseases, which Malthus saw as nature’s way of cutting population by raising deaths. China’s norm acted on births, not deaths.
Option (4) Arithmetic progression — Incorrect. Arithmetic progression (2, 4, 6, 8, 10) is the rate at which, according to Malthus, agricultural production grows. It is part of his argument, not a check on population.
NCERT (2025-26): “The Malthusian Theory of Population Growth … While population rises in geometric progression (i.e., like 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc.), agricultural production can only grow in arithmetic progression (i.e., like 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, etc.). Because population growth always outstrips growth in production of subsistence resources, the only way to increase prosperity is by controlling the growth of population. Unfortunately, humanity has only a limited ability to voluntarily reduce the growth of its population (through ‘preventive checks’ such as postponing marriage or practicing sexual abstinence or celibacy). Malthus believed therefore that ‘positive checks’ to population growth – in the form of famines and diseases – were inevitable because they were nature’s way of dealing with the imbalance between food supply and increasing population.…” |