India recently surpassed China to become the country with the largest population in the world.
As of October 28 2024, the current population of India is an incredible 1,455,132,618, equivalent to 17.8 percent of the total world population. China follows closely behind with an impressive 1.42 billion.
Between 1975 and 2010, the population doubled to 1.2 billion, reaching the billion mark in 2000.
However, despite all those incredible statistics, Indian women have been urged to have a minimum of two children in a bid to reverse plummeting birth rates and boost its population.
N. Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of the Andhra Pradesh state, has warned of a ticking time bomb as the region is currently failing to reach the “replacement level” for fertility.
Fewer children being born now means an increasingly elderly population with reduced working age in the future.
Having larger families would be “for the greater good,” Naidu said, according to India’s new channel ABP Live.
The average Indian woman today is expected to have 2.0 children in her lifetime, according to Pew Research Center analysis in 2023, much lower than India’s birth rate of 3.4 children in 1992.
Naidu is trying to appeal to families living in the state of Andhra Pradesh to have more children. The state’s birth rate currently stands at 1.6 live births per woman, well below the replacement level of 2.1.
“South India is witnessing an ageing problem,” Naidu said, according to news agency PTI. “If you give birth to more than two children, then the population will increase.
“This work I am doing [appealing for larger families] is not only for you but also for the nation, for the greater good. We can earn money by doing any work, but we will work only when we have children or when there is a population.”
Naidu did, however, admit that his appeal will have been met with some irony, considering he previously called for smaller families to protect finite resources and build prosperity. He even went so far as to bar people with more than two children from standing in local body elections. He abolished this policy in August.
“I recall my past call for population control, stressing the finite availability of land, water, and air resources,” Naidu said this week. “People heeded my word and reduced Andhra Pradesh’s birth rate within 10 years, which now risks the danger of its population falling down completely.
“We want to go for population management, instead of population control. Now the time has come; every family has to think about how to manage the population, then there will be a future.”
Critics have been quick to point out that Naidu’s family has not done much to build the population. According to ABP Live, YSRCP leader Jupudi Prabhakar Rao reportedly said of the chief minister: “What about himself? He has only one son, and his son also has only one son. He is a visionary, right?”
India is not alone in grappling with a population problem. Europe is also concerned, with the EU discussing a report last month that revealed the strain being placed on welfare systems and public finances with a sharp fall in working-age citizens and a hike in the number of older people.
In the US, experts have warned of a “silver tsunami” after figures suggested that by 2035 older adults will outnumber children – a first in American history. Japan’s birth rate is also continuing to nose dive, while North Korea has reportedly issued punishments to retailers who sell contraceptives.
However, some countries are witnessing quite the opposite. The population of sub-Saharan Africa is projected to see a big surge, with numbers expected to double by 2050 according to the UN.