The Demographic Distress

Context: A case for women-centric approach for population stabilisation.

Positive Achievements towards Population Stabilisation in India

• Recently, some states achieved targeted replacement levels of fertility: i.e. a Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 2.1 set by National Population Policy 2000.
  • Karnataka, Punjab, Gujarat, Assam, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir.
• Stellar performance by Southern states: even among illiterate women. Reasons-
  • Governments proactively urging families to have only two children.
  • Female sterilisation.(thereafter)

Concerns related to population stabilisation in India

• Poor performance of Northern states in reducing TFR: Uttar Pradesh and Bihar (highest fertility) are 23 % of India’s population and are projected to grow by over 12 % and 20 % in the next 15 years. Reasons-
  • Lack of modern family planning methods.
    • Low contraceptive prevalence rate: In some districts, it is less than 10 %.
    • Over-reliance on traditional methods of contraception.
    • Women’s unwillingness: to seek contraception, especially when her husband is a migrant.
• Excessive use of female sterilisation: Though national and state policies emphasise male vasectomy.
  • E.g. Even Kerala, with all its progress, still relies on female sterilisation (>88 %) as the predominant modern method of contraception.
  • Indonesia and Bangladesh introduced injectables right from the late 1980s, but India only did so in 2016.
• Population ageing: In future, the cohort of the elderly will start outstripping the working-age population in Southern states.

Way forward:  A women-centric approach to achieve population stabilisation

• Incentivise later marriages and childbirths
• Make contraception easy for women - Promote injectables as a method of contraception.
• Promote women’s labour force participation.
• Achieve a balanced sex ratio:  to secure social cohesion.
  • Else India will face a demographic catastrophe like China- (as it's one-child policy resulted in a strong son preference and a large bride shortage)