Population A promise rather than a problem

Context: According to findings of the fifth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), for the first time on record, the country’s total fertility rate (TFR) has dropped below the replacement rate of 2.1, as assessed.

Issues associated with enforcing legal population control measures

• Hindrance to the rights: Article 21 of the Indian Constitution grants us all the fundamental right to personal liberty. 
  • How many children an individual opts for is a self-evident personal choice and any conception of liberty must cover reproductive autonomy.
  • Two-child norm of ‘family planning’.
  • Uttar Pradesh recently sought to use selective state employment and welfare provisions as an instrument to cap the size of families. 
  • Even without legal measures, UP TFR slide from 2.7% in 2015-16 to 2.4% in 2019-20.
• Diminishing diverse socio-economic factors: Families have been shrinking affecting the diverse socio-economic factors.

Conclusion: Any post-Malthusian reading of economics holds population as an asset and not liability but as creators of value and not mouths to feed and with the present trend our economy could see us clubbed in the same bracket as countries that have fallen short of people.

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