The Population Problem; 4; India: Writings on the Sand
- Series
- The Population Problem
- Episode Number
- 4
- Episode
- India: Writings on the Sand
- Producing Organization
- National Educational Television and Radio Center
- United States Productions
- Contributing Organization
- Thirteen WNET (New York, New York)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/75-3331zh3w
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- Description
- Episode Description
- The episode explores India's greatest problem - an exploding population in a country where there is now barely enough food to feed the people. Since the beginning of the 20th Century, the life span in the country has increased from 19 to 40 years, and it is still increasing. Today there are more than 483 million people in India and by the end of the century its population will surpass a billion. Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting and the daughter of the late Prime Minister Nehru, reflects on the situation confronting India today where 98 percent of the people still marry at an early age and, following the tradition of generations, pray for fertility and children.
- Series Description
- Five of these six episodes will examine population growth as it exists and as it is being slowed or increased in Latin America, Europe, Japan, India, and the United States. The sixth episode will take viewers into the laboratories of scientists who are on the one hand, trying to find methods of birth control satisfactory and morally acceptable to everyone and, on the other hand, are trying to unlock the riddles of barren marriages. The human race is growing faster than ever before in history. At its present rate of growth, world population will double in 35 years. Today there are well over three billion people on earth. Demographer scientists who study population say that by the year 2,000 there will be nearly seven billion if the current rate continues. This staggering projection threatens the living conditions of most of the worlds people. And the present growth rate is crippling the globes poorer nations, nations trying desperately to step into the Twentieth Century as the western world understands it. 2028Thus, population growth constitutes one of mans most awesome crises. It was a lowered death rate rather than a higher birth rate that lead to rapid population growth. For centuries man lived with a high death rate the result of war, disease, and famine. Man kept his birth rate high to insure survival. But revolutions in agriculture, industry, transportation, and education, increased food supply, the spread of public sanitation, and medical advances all lowered the death rate. The Europeans were the first to lower their birth rates to bring them into line with their lowered death rates. This demographic transition a changeover from high birth and death rates to low ones has been successfully carried out in the USSR, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, Developing nations are still striving for this goal. Through the demographers scientific eyes and the cameras documentary eyes, The Population Problem will study the seriousness of this modern and perplexing crisis. The demographic advisory committee that is working with National Educational Television for THE POPULATION PROBLEM is composed of the following members: 1. Frank Notestein (Chairman of the Committee), president of the Population Council; 2. Bernard Berelson, vice president of the Population Council; 3. Ansley J. Coale, director, Office of Population Research, Princeton University; 4. Robert Cook, President of the Population Reference Bureau; 5. Howard C. Taylor, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology, College Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University; and 6. P. K. Whelpton, director of the Scripps Foundation for Research in Population Problems. THE POPULATION PROBLEM is a 1965 National Educational Television presentation. Produced for NET by United States Productions. Executive producer: Tom Hollyman. Executive producer for NET: Charles Vaughan. The series is being produced under a grant from Cordelia S. May. The 6 hour-long episodes that comprise this series were originally recorded on film, with episodes 1, 2, 5, 6 in black and white and episodes 3 and 4 in color. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Description
- The program explores Indias greatest problem an exploding population in a country where there is now barely enough food to feed the people. Since the beginning of the 20th Century, the life span in the country has increased from 19 to 40 years, and it is still increasing. Today there are more than 483 million people in India and by the end of the century its population will surpass a billion. Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting and the daughter of the late Prime Minister Nehru, reflects on the situation confronting India today where 98 percent of the people still marry at an early age and, following the tradition of generations, pray for fertility and children. The life of the people of India is rooted in the earth, yet its agricultural harvest cannot supply the food necessary to feed its bulging population. The program reports from Kerala, the southernmost state in India where, despite three harvests a year, the province must import two-thirds of its food to sustain a population of 17 million. The problem of Kerala pinpoints Indias greatest problem: how to grow enough food for a population that increases by 21 million a year. M.C. Chagla, Minister of Education and former Indian ambassador to the United States, reports that despite Indias increased food production, it will be of little significance unless India can control its population. The program reports on village life in India where 90 percent of the people live in 500,000 rural villages. Most of this rural population is illiterate and the average income is only $76 per year. Set against this background, Indias government is attempting to educate its people about the need for controlling family size. Lieutenant Colonel B. L. Raina, director of family planning, says there is no opposition to family planning but that his understaffed agency cannot reach the inhabitants fast enough. But where family planning has been explained and out into operation, a decreasing birth rate has followed. Raina discusses the 5-year experimental program in Singur where the birth rate has dropped 18 percent.
- Broadcast Date
- 1968-10-20
- Asset type
- Episode
- Genres
- Documentary
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Credits
-
-
Editor: Sommerschield, Bengt
Executive Producer: Hollyman, Tom
Executive Producer: Vaughan, Charles
Interviewee: Chagla, Mahomedali Currim
Interviewee: Gandhi, Indira
Interviewee: Raina, B. L.
Music: Ramanthan, Subrahmanya
Narrator: Ryan, Robert
Producer: Hardy, David Keith
Producing Organization: National Educational Television and Radio Center
Producing Organization: United States Productions
Story Editor: Blay, John S.
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
Thirteen - New York Public Media (WNET)
Identifier: wnet_aacip_2626 (WNET Archive)
Format: 16mm film
Duration: 00:58:57?
-
Thirteen - New York Public Media (WNET)
Identifier: wnet_aacip_2627 (WNET Archive)
Format: 16mm film
Duration: 00:58:57?
-
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Identifier: [request film based on title] (Indiana University)
Format: 16mm film
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
- Citations
- Chicago: “The Population Problem; 4; India: Writings on the Sand,” 1968-10-20, Thirteen WNET, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed May 12, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-3331zh3w.
- MLA: “The Population Problem; 4; India: Writings on the Sand.” 1968-10-20. Thirteen WNET, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. May 12, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-3331zh3w>.
- APA: The Population Problem; 4; India: Writings on the Sand. Boston, MA: Thirteen WNET, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-3331zh3w