- , there is a marginal decline in India and TABLE . Annual Growth of Gross Domestic Product (%), - Country - - India . . .
. . . Work These Out Ø Does India follow any population stabilisation measures?
If so, collect the details and discuss in the classroom. You may refer to the latest Economic Survey, annual reports or websites of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare ( Ø Scholars find son-preference as a common phenomenon in many developing countries including India, China and Pakistan. Do you find this phenomenon in your family or neighbourhood? Why do people practice discrimination between male and female children?
What do you think about it? Discuss in the classroom. Fig. .
Land use and agriculture in India, China and Pakistan (Not to scale) Source: Key Indicators for Asia and Pacific , Asian Development Bank, Phillipines. China’s growth rates whereas Pakistan met with drastic decline at . per cent. Some scholars hold the reform processes introduced in in Pakistan and political instability as reasons behind this trend.
We will study in a later section which sector contributed to this trend in these countries. First, look at how people engaged in different sectors contribute to Gross Domestic Product. It was pointed out in the previous section that China and Pakistan have more proportion of urban people than India. In China, due to topographic and climatic conditions, the area suitable for cultivation is relatively small — only about per cent of its total land area.
The total cultivable area in China accounts for per cent of the cultivable area in India. Until the 1980s, more than per cent of the people in China were dependent on farming as their sole source of livelihood. Since then, the government encouraged people to leave their fields and pursue other activities such as handicrafts, commerce and transport. In , with per cent of its workforce engaged in agriculture, its contribution to GDP in China is per cent (see Table .
). In both India and Pakistan, the contribution of agriculture to GDP were