Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has been championing the cause of checking negative growth of population and advocating for more children. Soon after becoming chief minister of the state for the fourth time, he removed hurdles to contest in local body polls for those having more than two children.
During his three-day stay in his native village Naravaripalli for Sankranti with his family members, again he has resumed his stress for more children. He asserted that he will bring out policies to encourage people to have more children.
He said that an individual can become a sarpanch, municipal councillor or a mayor only if he or she has more than two children, hinting that it will arrest the falling population.
“At one time, individuals with many children were not allowed to contest the panchayat (election) or local bodies. Now what I am saying is that individuals with lower numbers of children cannot contest. You will be a sarpanch, municipal councillor, corporation chairman or a mayor only if you have more than two children,” he told the media in Naravaripalle.
Expressing his concern over falling fertility rate in the Southern states, he has been warning that South India soon may lose its advantage of having a stable fertility rate in about 15 years.
“Your parents bore four to five children and you reduced it to one. Even smarter people now are saying double income no kids let us enjoy. If their parents had thought like them, they would not have come into this world,” he said.
Stating that all countries have made similar mistakes, he has given a call stating that we have to make the decision at the right time. He added that the importance of having more children was not stressed and the situation went out of hand.
Citing countries like South Korea and Japan and continental Europe, he said people in those places did not realise the danger of plummeting populations but only focused on creating wealth, raising income and taking those countries forward.
Early this month also, Chandrababu cautioned against the falling birthrates and said India should not repeat the mistakes committed by other countries such as South Korea and Japan, where birthrates have plummeted.
The CM said some couples are averse to having children nowadays because they do not want to share the money they earned and use those riches for their own enjoyment. Naidu, in October last year, said there was a need to manage the population in Andhra Pradesh given that there will be an increase in the ageing population.
“Till 2047, we will have the demographic dividend, there will be more youngsters. After 2047, there will be more old people…if less than two children are given birth (per woman), then the population will reduce. If you (each woman) give birth to more than two children, then the population will increase,” he added.
