India is the most populous country in the world and it is here that two Chief Ministers of South India are advocating to have more children. There are many angles to this issue but the biggest angle is the number of Lok Sabha seats. The Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu publicly said that now is the time to produce more children. Otherwise India will remain a country of old people. Chief Minister Chandrababu who made such statement is part of NDA and Stalin is part of India Bloc. Both have different purposes for making a statement. Hi, Fertility rate is decreasing in South Indian states than North Indian states. Anuk villages in Andhra are populated only by elders. Young people are not seen at all. At one time Chandrababu Naidu talked about population control. Now he himself is talking about increasing the population. BJP may also be offended by this statement of Chandrababu. Because Chandrababu has not only talked, he has made a population policy and announced to pass the bill in the assembly. Three questions arise from the statements of these two chief ministers. 1. How fair is it to encourage population growth in a densely populated country like India? 2. Is India's youth population really declining? 3. What is the political votebank math behind these statements? What did Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu say? The rising average age of people in the state is a matter of concern. A family should have at least two or more children. In future, only people with two or more children will be able to contest elections to local bodies. The state government will soon make a law for this. There are many districts in Andhra Pradesh where only the elders are left in the villages. There is no youth or child. Fertility rates continue to decline in southern states. The average fertility rate in the country is 2.1, while in the southern states this figure has fallen to 1.6. Earlier I talked about population control but now the picture is different. South India is beginning to show signs of an aging problem. Japan, China and some European countries are grappling with this issue, where the elderly population is high. If the fertility rate continues to decline, we will be facing a serious aging problem by 2047. What law does Chandrababu want to bring? Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is currently very concerned about the growing elderly population in the state. The Andhra government is also considering bringing a bill on population control. In which families with more children will be given special facilities. Only those people who have more than two children can contest local body elections. Those who have two children or one child cannot contest the elections. What is the population imbalance between northern and southern states? North India has a higher population density than South India. The rate of urbanization in South India is higher than that of North India. There is also a geographical reason for this, as geographical factors like fertile soil, water resources and climate influence the population in North India. Socio-economic factors such as education, health and employment opportunities also affect population distribution. Chandrababu Naidu also expressed concern over the declining fertility rate in southern states. What did Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin say? After Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu made a statement, the Chief Minister of another southern state, Tamil Nadu, M.K. Stalin also advised people to have more children. Stalin said that the time had come for the newly married couple to have 16 children each. Stalin made this statement during a function of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department in Chennai. 31 couples got married here in the presence of Chief Minister MK Stalin. He said it is time for couples to have 16 children instead of 16 types of assets. The youth population is declining which will also affect our Lok Sabha seats, so we should have 16 children each. What are the 16 types of wealth that Stalin mentioned? Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Stalin said that when the elders said that you should have 16 children and live a prosperous life, they did not mean 16 children but 16 types of wealth. Which is mentioned by the writer Vishwanathan in his book. These 16 wealth are cow, house, wife, children, education, curiosity, knowledge, discipline, land, water, age, vehicle, gold, property, crops and fame. But now it seems that the elders talking about 16 children should be taken to mean 16 children. What is the relationship between population growth and Lok Sabha seats? When Chandrababu Naidu and MK Stalin talked about the new population policy, the debate about Lok Sabha seats and delimitation started. Stalin further fueled this debate by openly mentioning the number of seats. What is the relationship between population growth and Lok Sabha seats? Actually the math behind it is that there is a provision of one MP for every 10 lakh population. There is a provision of seats in proportion to the population and the number of seats is increased through delimitation. The current strength of the Lok Sabha is 545 members based on the 1971 census. The population of the country was 36 crores as per 1951 census, which crossed 50 crores to 55 crores in 1971 census. After that the government started taking measures for population control. The southern states showed awareness and took various measures for population control with success. But on the contrary, the pace of population growth continued in the states of North India. Southern states made provision for increasing seats on the basis of population and delimitation was banned first till the year 2000 and then till 2026. North India has more Lok Sabha seats, South India has less Southern states oppose increasing seats in delimitation based on population, calling it unfair to them. Southern states argue that we have contributed to population control and it will be unfair to us if the seats are increased on that basis. The current scenario has to be understood to understand the relationship between the opposition and the number of seats and population in the south. The states of North India have a total of 225 seats and the South has 130 seats, while Andhra Pradesh has 25 seats. The population of the state is around 5 crore and if the seats increase in terms of population then the number of seats in the state will double to 50. Similarly, the number of seats in Tamil Nadu will increase from 39 to only 77. Where will Andhra and Tamil Nadu seats in the 10 lakh formula? The rule is that there is a provision of one MP for every 10 lakh population. If this formula is adopted considering the current population, the number of seats in UP, which has a population of 19 crore, will increase from 80 to 131. North India's seats in Parliament will increase more than South India's. The concern of the southern parties is that the BJP is strong in northern India and may decide to increase seats keeping in mind the politics of the north. One aspect is that the BJP returned to power for the third time in a row in the recent general elections but not with as much strength as in the last two elections. He had to enlist the support of Telugu Desam Party, a party from southern Andhra Pradesh. Chandrababu has understood that if we have more seats in the Lok Sabha, the strength will increase and for that the population needs to be more. Naidu's statement will raise BJP's eyebrows!! Now the question is also whether Naidu's new policy is likely to cause a flint in the NDA. In fact, the credit of implementing the new population policy 2000 in the country also goes to the BJP. While BJP-led governments and NDA state governments are making stricter rules on people having more than two children, Naidu's announcement could spark a wedge between the BJP and Babu. After the death of a policeman in Maharashtra, one of his family members should get a job, but no one was given the job because there were more than two children. These statements to have children also remain in dispute What are the rules for children in which state? What are the causes of population increase in India? (This information is published by National Family Health Survey) Fertility rate in 5 southern states Andhra Pradesh 1.70 Karnataka 1.70 Kerala 1.80 Tamil Nadu 1.80 Telangana 1.82 (Andhra and Karnataka have the lowest fertility rate. In 1950 this fertility rate was 6. That means a woman gave birth to an average of 6 children. giving birth to only one child and in very rare cases two children) How many people in India's population are in which age group? 0 to 14 years : 24% 10 to 19 years : 17% 20 to 24 years : 26% 15 to 64 years : 68% Above 65 : 7% (Now India's population is 144 crores. In 2036 it will be 152 crores.) Finally, this problem of Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh not Some time ago, the President of Russia Putin also said that the most children should be born. That's what Korea said. This problem has been there for a long time in Japan and now this problem has also been seen in China. We have a Parsi community there whose population is slowly decreasing. This is a matter of concern for the Parsi community as well. Tune in from Monday to Friday at 8 pm Editor's View… (Richters: Yashpal Bakshi)
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
EDITOR'S VIEW: Population politics now: Andhra Pradesh CM's shocking appeal to Tamil Nadu Why is it time for South to have 16 children each? Know, the myth of declining population
