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CHAPTER II
THE IDEAL OF INDIAN WOMANHOOD
OURS is an overpopulated country-in the sense that it has probably the highest birth-rate. Rcliable statistical data are practically absent. The vast bulk of the population do not keep any record of births. Yet, a very high rate of births is clearly indicated by the rapid increase of population. As a matter of fact, the net increase of population is not the true indicator of the actual rate of births. The ratio is much greater. Because, the high birth-rate is more than counter-balanced by the still higher rate of infant mortality. On the whole, the death-rate is higher in India than in the economically more advanced countries. Still, her population has been increasing fast enough. That means an extraordinarily high birth-rate.
That creates the baffling problem of popula tion. The poverty of the masses lies at the root of the problem. It is the primary cause of the comparative largeness of the incidents of births as well as of deaths. The cause of the birth of too many children is to be traced in the cultural backwardness of the masses which, in its turn, is determined by their economic conditions. On the other hand, about fifty per cent of the first-born children die soon after birth, and infant mortality is gene
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