Marxist theory on population growth UPSC

As per Karl Marx, there are two types of class or society.

• First, industrial society exploits the labor class and has many rights. The industrial class captured all the resources and no resources were left for the labor class.
• Second, the labor class is being exploited by the industrial class and has very few rights and no resources.

The main reasons for poverty and hunger are the exploitative nature of the industrial class. The Labour class increases/ her family in the hope that they will get more resources if the number of family members increased. This thinking increased the population and the increase in this population will flood more labor to the market, this will further increase the exploitation by the industrial class to labor class. Due to mechanization in agriculture, do not need much labor as earlier, this adds further hunger and poverty.

Marxist Population cycle

• As per Karl Marx, there is no standard formula or equation of population growth as it was claimed by Malthus. 
• Karl Marx believed that each society has a different nature of population growth, for example, the population of the labor class grows faster than the industrial class.
• The production of food is directly related to the structure of society. For example, higher and middle-class people are not conservative and they opt for new technologies & innovations to boost productivity. The Labour class is conservative in nature they do not believe in new technologies at first and hence they remain backward. 

Criticism of Marxist theory on Population Growth:

• Marx did not consider the health facilities' role to control the population. 
• Today due to trickles down-effect, today's poor population is more beneficial than in the communist country population. 
• Population growth is not due to the single reason for poverty but it happens because it happened due to fears of the survival rate of children.

Try to solve the following questions:

•  "Marx's view on population is more humanistic." Comment. ( UPSC 2015, 150 words, 10 Marks)

You may like also:

• MALTHUSIAN THEORY OF POPULATION
• MARXIST THEORY ON POPULATION GROWTH
• DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION THEORY

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