Should India incentivise bigger families?
Indian policymakers are debating whether to incentivize larger families as the national fertility rate drops below the replacement level. Experts discuss the socio-cultural roots of this decline and the political motivations behind potential cash incentives.
Why it matters
It addresses the demographic shift in India and the complex intersection of population policy, regional politics, and social norms.
For decades, Indian policymakers have encouraged population control, with the familiar slogan of ‘Hum Do, Humare Do’ (We two, our two). However, the recent drop in India’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) — the average number of children a woman would have in her lifetime — has now dropped to 1.9, below the replacement rate of 2.1, with some southern States seeing their TFR drop to 1.3. Last month, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu announced cash incentives of ₹30,000 and ₹40,000 to women having their third and fourth child respectively, in a bid to reverse that trend. Several other southern States have indicated that they also see the benefits of boosting population growth, though not through a cash payout. Should India incentivise bigger families? Aparajita Chattopadhyay and Neelanjan Sircar discuss the question in a conversation moderated by Priscilla Jebaraj.
The article presents a balanced discussion between two experts with differing views on the efficacy and ethics of the policy.
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