One of the most pressing problems facing the world today is overpopulation. What policies do you think governments should adopt to address the causes and effects of this problem?

If we have to point out a prominent 21st century problem that the world is facing, it would indeed be overpopulation. Its high time that the government should examine the causes and its alarming after effects. To devise a solution, it is important to look at the root causes. The major cause leading to overpopulation is the lack of family planning. A large number of people who are facing poverty in the developing/under developed nations have scarce idea of what family planning is. When poverty joins hands with ignorance, the problem doubles. For many couples, children are looked upon as Godly gifts, more the gifts, more would be the source of income for the family. Un-education veils them from seeing the bigger picture of improper education that all those children will have due to their lack of financial resources. Secondly, Many countries are obsessed with the male child. They do have children till a male child is born. This unnecessarily increases the size of the family. People need to be educated to stop this discrimination. Thirdly, Sex is a taboo in many of the countries. It is not discussed. Sex education is not given importance that it should have. As a result, people misunderstand a lot regarding it. However, there are some policies that a government can levy to address this problem. Firstly, there should an official family planning legislated by the governments, regulating a maximum of two child per family. Secondly, authorities should make provisions to offer better sex education which will help people understand better about the potential consequences of having sex. They can be educated more on safe sex techniques and the contraceptive methods available to avoid any unwanted pregnancy. If the population kept growing at the same rate that it is now, it would leave a wide range of adverse impacts on the society as whole. Greater the population, greater would be the demand to cater the food, water and fossil fuels. It would give rise to unemployment which in turn would increase stealing, robbery and the other criminal activities. Overpopulation would also tend to decrease the quality of life due to increase in traffic congestion and abating life space. Anything excess isn't good, People are no exception. A stich in time, saves nine. Public should join hands with the government and fight the population explosion.