POPULATION, HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT

The interconnectedness between people and their environment has been a matter of discussion for long. Population size, components of growth, settlement patterns, and resource availability will certainly impact the environment. A better understanding of how and when these aspects of population growth impact the environment is required. It is also important to know how the environmental changes impact the health and well-being of population. There is a need for discussion based on scientific evidence on the linkages between population, health, and environment. In this regard, it is important to promote exchange of knowledge and ideas from multiple perspectives. Therefore, the focus of this book is to examine these complex issues in detail, its interrelationships with supportive evidence and also to identify thrust areas for further research and action. From a multidisciplinary perspective, it highlights the issues relating to the environment and discusses its linkages with fertility, health and family planning.

This edited book, consisting of selected papers from a national seminar, highlights the need for interdisciplinary approach to address complex issues like this. This publication also emphasizes the urgency for further research and deeper investigation to explore the linkages between population and environment in low-resources situations. This will be a useful reference material not only for social scientists but also for those who are interested in population, health and development in general.

Sayeed Unisa is Professor in the Department of Mathematical Demography and Statistics at International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai. Her research interests are nutrition, gender issues, and reproductive health. She is a member of Technical Advisory Committees of national level projects and commissions.

T.V. Sekher is Professor in the Department of Population Policies and Programmes at IIPS, Mumbai. Trained in Demography and Sociology, his areas of research interests are gender issues, public health and population ageing.

Chander Shekhar is Professor in the Department of Fertility Studies, IIPS, Mumbai. He has been associated with DLHS and NFHS and has published extensively in the areas of fertility, family planning, abortion and projections.

Abhishek Singh is Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health and Mortality Studies at IIPS, Mumbai. His research interests include mortality analysis, maternal and child health, social epidemiology and large-scale survey research.

Laxmi Kant Dwivedi is Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical Demography & Statistics at IIPS, Mumbai. His main areas of teaching and research are econometrics, applied multivariate analysis, simulation and decomposition techniques and impact evaluation in the field of population studies.

Manas R. Pradhan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Fertility Studies at IIPS, Mumbai. His research interests include fertility and family planning, social determinants of health, public health, and large-scale survey research.