The nexus between population, poverty and the environment in India

Lingappan Venkatachalam, Institute for Social and Economic Change

In India, population, degradation of environment and poverty and inequality are the major challenges to sustainable development. Though there is a policy concern about the linkage between these issues, this linkage has not yet been properly carved out, articulated seriously and studied systematically in the policy-making arena at the macro level. It may be noted that the poverty-population-environment nexus is mediated through complex web of factors, including the institutional factors. Therefore, the present paper makes an attempt to analyse this linkage by using a ‘general equilibrium approach’, using data on various indicators on poverty (e.g. people below poverty line), population (e.g. infant and child mortality) and environment (e.g. deforestation) at the state level for two different time periods. The econometric and simulation exercises broadly suggest that the factors alone may not be the problem but the process by which the issues are addressed have lot of bearings on the nexus.