2. Factors in Population Growth
< Mortality Transition >
Since its foundation, India has steadily reduced its mortality rate by improving the population's nutrition, public hygiene, medical services, etc.
The annual mortality rate was 25 per 1000 in early 1950s, but has been greatly improved to about nine today. The average life-expectancy which was below 40 right after independence, is also about to exceed 62 years now, and infant mortality has dropped from 190 per 1,000 to 72 during the same period, showing a decrease of more than 60%.
The decline in the mortality rate in India, however, roles in comparison with the dramatic changes in China. The mortality rate of India was 25 per 1,000 in the early 1950s, the same as the former, but it had dropped below 7 in the early 1970s, 20 years on. In the same period, China's infant mortality rate fell from 195 to 61, and the average life expectancy rose from 39 years to 62.5 years. Progress which took India 50 years to achieve, was made in only 20 years in China. The substantial gap between the two countries cannot simply be explained by the differences in development of medical technology or its diffusion among the people, but is owed to the fact that education and reform of social structure spread thoroughly throughout China, including its rural communities. Conversely, the gap in improvement in the mortality rates represents India's relative lateness in social modernization, and it is important to recognize this fact when contemplating country's future prospects.
< Fertility Transition >
Any decrease in the mortality rate accelerates population growth unless associated with a decrease in birth rate.
