According to Malthus famines and drought are important to control population growth. They are called:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Positive checks
Option (1) Negative checks — Incorrect. Malthus spoke of two kinds of checks on population, positive and preventive; ‘negative checks’ is not one of them.
Option (2) Preventive checks — Incorrect. Preventive checks are the voluntary ways in which people can limit population, such as postponing marriage or practising sexual abstinence or celibacy. Famines and droughts are not chosen by people.
Option (3) Positive checks — Correct. Malthus believed that ‘positive checks’ in the form of famines and diseases were inevitable, because they were nature’s way of dealing with the imbalance between food supply and a growing population.
Option (4) Geometric checks — Incorrect. ‘Geometric’ describes how, for Malthus, population rises, in geometric progression (2, 4, 8, 16, 32), while food grows only in arithmetic progression. It is a rate of growth, not a 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.…” |