- Come to think of it, India is the most populous country in the world, overtaking the earlier position holder, China, by some distance. How India overcame China’s once-held position of the most populous nation in the world needs earnest deliberations. Mind you, China’s demographic dividends have produced tremendous outcomes in the last few decades is stating the obvious. However, the one-child policy introduced by the Chinese leadership in the late 20th century has had a counterproductive effect that is quite visible of late. With the state-sponsored policy of one child per couple restricting reproduction, China has not only conceded the demographic dividend but is also grappling with the ageing population. There are lessons to be learnt here for India.
PC: Outlook
- Now, several prominent leaders are jumping onto the bandwagon, exhorting the married couple to produce more babies. Of course, some leaders are making statements keeping in mind sustaining the country’s demographic dividends. And some leaders are obviously making politically/communally charged remarks, with one community’s growing population making the other look rundown. The latest on the matter is the RSS chief exhorting Indians, per se, to have more babies. Mind you, Indians won’t have more babies just because the RSS chief and other notables want them to. At various points over the past decade, headline makers have urged Hindus to have ten, eight, five, and four children per couple. No less, you see.
PC: India Today
- RSS chief’s recent exhortation to all Indians, not just Hindus, to have three kids, is the most realistic, but it won’t happen for the same reasons that it hasn’t in Japan, S Korea, Italy, Poland, France, and China. Recollect how Pope Francis passed away after warning, “The Old Continent is becoming an elderly continent. Have children, lots of them”. In the US, VP JD Vance said, “I want more babies”, and a baby Vance is on the way, but it won’t lift the national average despite Uncle Musk’s cheerleading: “immediate increase in the birth rate is needed”. Babies are lovely, undoubtedly, but they have a nasty trick of growing up. Then we need to school them, and educational inflation in India averages 11-12% pa, while mom and pop’s wage growth doesn’t.
PC: The Indian Express
- Of course, one child can prematurely grey our hair, two can mean financial ruin, who wants three in the present times? You also need to place a roof over their heads, but house prices have been growing at 9% in the top 10 cities, and 24% in Delhi, where everybody wants to be. Heaven forbid someone in the family falls ill, and the reality of 10-12% medical inflation hits like a sucker punch. So, from a couple’s POV, babies are a luxury. Each baby is a hurdle for the mother since she alone bears the physical and career costs of childbearing. Caring responsibilities can be split, but are they? So, population collapse looks inevitable everywhere. Five years ago, India’s average fertility rate had slipped below the level required to keep the population stable. And it will continue.
