Out of the following which one cannot be categorised under 'Preventive checks' ?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Famines
Option (1) Postponing marriage — A preventive check (Incorrect). Preventive checks are the ways in which people voluntarily reduce the growth of population; marrying later means fewer births.
Option (2) Celibacy — A preventive check (Incorrect). Sexual abstinence or celibacy is a voluntary choice that prevents births, so it too is a preventive check.
Option (3) Famines — Not a preventive check (Correct). Famines and diseases are ‘positive checks’. They do not prevent births; they raise the number of deaths. Malthus believed they were inevitable because they were nature’s way of dealing with the imbalance between food supply and population.
Option (4) Use of contraceptives — A preventive check (Incorrect). Contraceptives let couples choose to have fewer children, which is a voluntary, preventive way of limiting population.
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.…” |