'One child policy' is one of the measures to decrease the population size. This policy can be categorised under which of the following?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Preventive Checks
Option (1) Preventive Checks — Correct. Malthus held that the only way to increase prosperity is by controlling the growth of population. Preventive checks are the means by which people voluntarily reduce the growth of population by preventing births, such as postponing marriage or practising sexual abstinence or celibacy. A one-child policy also cuts down the number of births, so it falls in this group.
Option (2) Positive Checks — Incorrect. Positive checks are famines and diseases, which Malthus saw as nature’s way of dealing with the imbalance between food supply and population. They reduce population by raising deaths, not by preventing births.
Option (3) Population Explosion — Incorrect. Population explosion is the very high rate of growth in the transitional stage, when death rates fall but birth rates stay high. It is the problem a one-child policy tries to stop, not a measure to stop it.
Option (4) Social Demography — Incorrect. Social demography is a variety of demography, the study of population, which focuses on the social, economic or political aspects of populations. It is a field of study, not a check on population.
Note: China’s former ‘one child policy’ is not in NCERT (2025-26); limiting each couple to one child works by preventing births, so it is a preventive check.
NCERT (2025-26): “2.1 Some Theories and Concepts in Demography … 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.…” “…There are different varieties of demography, including formal demography which is a largely quantitative field, and social demography which focuses on the social, economic or political aspects of populations.…” |