Need To Shut Population Control Programmes: PM's Economic Advisor

New Delhi:

India does not have an aging population yet but it is time to consider the future and "shut down" birth control programmes,  Sanjeev Sanyal, member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Economic Advisory Council, said at the NDTV Profit GST Conclave today. This, he said, is because while we are in the demographic dividend phase, with a mainly young population, we should take thought of the future.

Asked about the aging population in several nations including Japan, at the Conclave, Mr Sanyal said, "We have not aged yet but we need to think about this. We are in the demographic dividend phase".

But with the birth rate declining rapidly, it is essential that India stays at the replacement rate. 

"We have a total fertility rate of 1.9 and still declining, which is below the replacement rate. it is only 1.9 because a couple of states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have high birth rate but even those are declining," he said.  

"No country where birth rate has declined too much has been able to bring it back up past the replacement rate. If we can it will be very unique. But at the very least, we need to shut down the population control programmes that seem to hang around in our bureaucracy," he added.

Around 25 years ago, the country was at a high birth rate phase, he said. Since then, the birth rate has declined. "If I am not wrong, we had 25 million kids born in India in 2021. Today the number has fallen to 22 million," he said, calling it a "dramatic decline". 

More importantly, there are areas where the "birth rate looks like East Asia," he said. These include urban centres of the country and the states where birth control programme has been especially successful, including the south. 

Talking of states that are complaining about demographic changes "because of migration from the north," he said it may not last very long because these declines in fertility are happening in the north as well. So under the circumstances, one needs to "think about how to ramp up birth rate," he added.