Draft Population Management Policy to incentivise parents having third child

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu introduced the Draft Population Management Policy, whose objective is to raise the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) from 1.5 to an optimal level of 2.1, in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday, thereby reversing the declining fertility rate and prepare the State for an aging society by 2047.

To encourage parents to have a third child, he proposed an incentive of ₹25,000, noting that inaction at this stage would cause a lot of problems like in Japan, Italy and South Korea with 1.2, 1.2 and 0.7 TFRs they were facing. The new policy had been targeted to be implemented from April 1, 2026.

Making a statement on the policy, the Chief Minister observed that the State’s TFR was well below the replacement level of 2.1, and if the trend continued, nearly 23% of the population would be elderly. If the falling TFR was not stopped, the State would have a shrinking workforce and it would cripple the economy, he observed.

The State, therefore, set the goal to stabilise the TFR at 2.1 and nearly double women’s participation in labour force to boost the Gross State Domestic Product by 15%.

Mr. Naidu said, as part of the efforts to increase the TFR, the government would give a “Poshana – Shiksha – Suraksha” package for the families having a third child, under which the incentive would be paid at the time of delivery and ₹1,000 monthly assistance for five years and free education to the child up to age 18.

He stated that as on date about 58% of the families (three lakh) had only one child, around 2.17 lakh families had two children, and nearly 62 lakh families (three lakh) had three or more children.

Mr. Naidu said as economies grow, birth rates tend to decline, creating workforce shortages and long-term economic challenges. The draft policy document was being placed in the public domain for one month to facilitate extensive deliberations, after which it would be given a final shape, he informed the House, while stressing the need to evolve the population policy in tune with the changing demographic realities.

“Andhra Pradesh is now mirroring Tamil Nadu (TFR of 1.4) and Kerala (1.6). We are no longer a high fertility State. The situation requires an entirely new policy playbook,” he added.