What are the costs of population decline? The Hindu Explains

The story so far: The Chief Ministers of both Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu expressed concerns about the low fertility rates in their States recently. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has said that he planned to introduce legislation to incentivise more children per family.

After decades of family planning policies seeking to slow population growth, India has been waking up to the fact that the success of such policies is also leading to an increasingly ageing population. This is not a uniform phenomenon — southern States, as well as smaller northern States have seen a much sharper decrease in total fertility rates, defined as the average number of children born to women during their child-bearing years. Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, for instance, recorded fertility rates of 1.4 between 2019 and 2021, according to data from the Office of the Registrar General of India, while Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh had fertility rates of 1.5. At the other end of the spectrum are Bihar, with a fertility rate of 3, Uttar Pradesh (2.7), and Madhya Pradesh (2.6). States with lower fertility rates have largely developed faster, but are now faced with the spectre of a rapidly ageing population.