IS CONCERN ABOUT POPULATION GROWTH EXAGGERATED?

MOHAN: On 15 August, during his Independence Day speech to the nation, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared ‘we need to worry about population explosion’ – arguing that it hindered development. This came 10 days after his government rammed through a bill to remove autonomy from Jammu and Kashmir and a month after BJP parliamentarian Rakesh Sinha introduced the 2019 Population Regulation Bill, outlining a series of punitive measures for couples with more than two children. These include: being barred from contesting elections; welfare such as the public distribution system for food grains; and public schools or health facilities.

Both Modi and Sinha seem to be terribly ignorant about the reality on the ground. The birth rate in India is tumbling. The government’s own Economic Survey 2018-19 shows that the annual population growth rate reduced to around