Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday, 28 December, asked couples in the state to have more than two children. In line with this, he also offered an incentive to such couples, by removing the norm that barred candidates from contesting local body elections in the state, if they had more than two children.
“It is high time to correct the trends indicating demographic imbalances, lest the state may turn senile in the next two decades, marked by more eating mouths and less working hands," the chief minister was quoted as saying.
Naidu also said that there was a need to keep the state young, adding that those below 25 years of age present constituted roughly 50 percent of the population.
This has been an annual practice by the Andhra Chief Minister as this is not the first time that he has made such a statement.
‘Avoid Population Downfall’
In September last year, Naidu had said, “I used to advocate family planning. But now I am asking people to have more kids, because we educated families are not interested in having many kids. They are looking at it like a big task, as it is tough to raise children. If our previous generations had the same process, we wouldn't be here today. Balance is necessary. If there is imbalance and a lack of youngsters, as we are witnessing in countries like Japan, we have to employ robots instead of humans."
In March 2016, he was quoted as saying, "The state’s population is witnessing a down fall. It is not good for any progressive country. Now China and Japan are facing problem from population downfall. Previously, China and Japan followed family planning due to high population. But now majority of their people are old and there is huge shortfall in the number of youngsters. They have realised the problem and are encouraging more child births."
"Youngsters are not marrying early. Even if they do, they do not have children as they don't want responsibilities early...If this goes on, we may become like Japan where there are more old than young. That is why I am saying it may better if you have one or two children more instead of opting for family planning," Naidu had said in January, 2015.
(This story was first published on The News Minute and has been republished in an arrangement.)
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