World Population Day 2017: Our Population Today And Other Facts!

World population day- while this may sound like an event where we should be celebrating mankind and how far we've come along, it is actually quite the contrary. This event, observed on 11th July every year, was established by the United Nations to raise awareness regarding global population issues. With a staggering global population of almost 7.6 billion (which is increasing every single second), it is not hard to imagine the magnitude of the issues that we are currently facing, like poverty, diseases, lack of healthcare and education, malnutrition- just to name a few.

In light of this event, we bring to you our list of the top 10 facts about our population today:

1. The theme for this year's world population day is "Family Planning: Empowering People, Developing Nations".
2. This is quite fitting, as 1/3 of the population growth in the world is due to unwanted or accidental pregnancies. This is primarily because of lack of healthcare, education, or family planning resources.
3. India is currently ranking 2nd in the world population, but it is estimated that by 2025, India will surpass China.
4. More than 90% of the world's population is living in areas where the air quality is below the WHO standards. Delhi/NCR is believed to have the worst air quality in India.
5. In 2005, almost 60% of Indian children below the age of three were found to be malnourished.
6. India is the diabetes capital of the world- no, really! Almost 50 million people in our country suffer from type 2 diabetes.
7. 7.5% of Indians suffer from a mental disorder. Unfortunately, mental illness is a topic that is not brought up in Indian homes very often, and it is still stigmatized in urban areas.
8. The Pulse Polio program, started in 1995 by the Indian government, finally attained its objective in 2012, when India was polio-free for the first time in history.
9. In 2009, almost 2.9 million Indians were living with HIV/AIDS, with 39% of those infected being women.
10. In 2011, India developed a 'totally drug-resistant' form of tuberculosis, which is almost impossible to treat.

Just going through these facts, one thing is clear-we definitely have our work cut out for us, and that it is imperative to take some major steps toward the betterment of our country. 

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