The recent prod by the Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Mohan Bhagwat, to Indian couples to have at least three children, marks a not-so-subtle modification, politically, in how this ideological fountainhead views the country’s population imbroglio.
Paradoxically, it also underscores that the Sangh Parivar continues viewing women as a baby-producing community with little rights of their own to make their choices on reproductive matters.
Bhagwat’s call, without taking into account the demographic implications of increasing population growth after reaching a reasonably lower total fertility rate (TFR), also lays an inadequate understanding, to say the least, of the economic challenges faced by Indian families who are not a part of the nation’s minuscule financial elite.
If the RSS chief’s proposition is taken forward by it or any of its affiliates, especially the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the current Union government, we are likely to witness an alteration in how the Sangh Parivar has so far ‘milked’ the issue of what it calls ‘demographic disbalance’, i.e., the differential in the TFRs of Hindus and Muslims.